Transcript. DonaldEWestlake. DVD.ReservoirDogs1992.SE.Artisan.

1. LionelWhite, american mysterynovelist, who wrote KillingThe and a lot of other things, wrote a kidnappingnovel, called[SnatchersThe]. And it was published inFrance bySrieNoire. Gallimard. And a littlecrook inParis read it, and said, This thing is a blueprint. It tells you exactly what to do. It says, Kidnap a baby, because a baby can't identify you. It told him how to get the ransommoney. It said, Be sure to return the child unharmed, because, if you justtake money, they willeventuallystop looking for you, but, if you kill the kid, they'll neverstop looking for. So, he took this book to some friends and said, Look, we can do it. And they did it. And it was thecrimeofthecentury inFrance. They stole thePeugeotheir, thePeujeotautomobile, they stole the baby. They did everything just like the book said. Got the ransom, returned the baby, everything was fine. And they ran out of book. Within a few weeks, they were all arrested. Essentially, just dumb [“]little[“] guys. One of them is buying cars, he's buying furcoats for his girlfriend. One of them is getting drunk in a bar and said, You know, Peugeotkidnapping, I can tell you something aboutPeugeotkidnapping. I alwayssaid they should have taken some of their ransommoney and hiredLionelWhite to write a sequel in which they get away.

2. The fact is that nobody's dialogue is real. I mean, ElmoreLeonard's, GeorgeVHiggins's, and me or anybody's. It's all stylised. The stylisation is a, you stylise it to look real, but. WithHiggins, his stylisation was, was toward transcript, so that, if you're reading a book of his, it's as though you're reading a transcript, therefore that must be what they said. I'm not going to characterise mine. Leonard, what Leonard does is just keep circling in the dialogue. Just keep circling in the narration, so that, that looseness and apparent lack of direction is what makes it seem as though, that's real, that's what's going on.

3. If I were to approach by a screenwriter, who says, I'm going to adapt this book of yours and what do you have to say to me? Actually, I've said this a couple time and I would say. It's, Don't try to be funny. You're a humanbeing, don't worry, you're funny. You do your very level [?] best to be funny. You'll come out funny, because the images that I've always used is there's nothing funnier onEarth than a completelyangry man changing a flattire. He's hot, he's sweaty, he's got dirt on his, fighting the thing and everything. And as soon as he sees you across the street, amused by him, and plays to you, he stops being funny. So, the advice is, Never try to be funny.