Paul Thomas Anderson on Why He Dropped Out of Film School

What happened was, I walked into this class, and this teacher said, “If anyone is here to write Terminator 2, walk out, just get out of the door.” And I thought well that’s just not a good way to start. What if I do want to write Terminator 2? What if someone sitting next to me wants to write Terminator 2? He was sort of instantly saying “We write serious films here,” you know. Terminator 2 is a pretty awesome movie.

So there was an assignment to write, you write a page that has no dialogue in it…You show a character trait through action, with no dialogue. I had read this great script by David Mamet, which was Hoffa… and there was a great scene…where Danny DeVito is driving along… and it shows what he’s going through by the method he uses to keep himself awake while driving, which is he lights a cigarette… and he let’s it burn down to his fingers to keep him awake. And it’s just so simple, and perfect, and lovely, and it’s Mr. Pulitzer Prize himself, David Mamet. So I took that page, and I handed it in. And it got a C+… There’s a wonderful thing that if you drop out quick enough, you get your tuition back.