John Tytell: They are making a movie of The Great Gatsby.
William S. Burroughs: I’m sure it will be a real mess.
JT: But not at the box office.
WSB: I’m not even sure of that. Generally speaking they know what they’re doing, but they don’t always. They will go all out on these spectaculars that don’t work at all. I was just looking the book over myself with an idea of making a film, and there just is no film there — everything’s in the prose. You take that away and you’ve got wooden dialogue and creaky action… It isn’t cinematic.
William S. Burroughs talking about filming The Great Gatsby in 1974.
