He`s also one of those friends who doesn`t impress easily. And so if you get a good reaction from him, it actually means something. So it was important for me to hear from him something about the script, whether it was good or bad.
He went to every fund-raising meeting vouching for a first-time feature director and first-time screenwriter. It was Phil who said, `I believe in them; you need to trust me.
He was enormously manipulative, very ambitious and not always truthful. I didn`t want a biography that worships the title character. I wanted a movie that portrays the truth.
He achieved everything he ever wanted, and the cost of that ruined him. It was something he never came to terms with. He never did finish another book. The drinking and drug abuse increased, and it was the beginning of his long demise.