Gone Girl

“Gileian Flynn is the author of one of my favorite books of all time, Gone Girl.”

“So you have Gone Girl, you're in the Midwest, you're in Missouri, uh they've moved from New York.”

“That's what's crazy about why I love Gone Girl so much is I do not like flipping over the rock. But Gone Girl is an investigation of the underside of it.”

“Like if I think of Gone Girl, I almost think of there's Carthage, which is a name that you see and you're like, "Whoop, that was a deliberate choice." You don't come to that by accident. And then there's like Nick Amy, which I'm like a little bit more nondescript.”

“I think it's really important in Gone Girl. I think you went a step further where you said, "I've literally seen it all." And the worst thing, the thing that makes you want to blow my brains out is the secondhand experience is always better.”

“But for instance with Gone Girl it's you know okay here's Nick okay here's Nick's wife is gone now he's flubbing the interview with the cops and looking bad and now he's taking a selfie and flirting accidentally flirting with someone with a hot casserole to bring them.”

“As long as you acknowledge that I'm character driven and that I'm not, you know, it wasn't like the twist of Gone Girl was the reason I wrote Gone Girl. Truly was not. And it's the idea of building a character.”

“And I'm the one thing I'm proudest of with Gone Girl is that we prove that that I think once and for all that that is absolutely wrong.”

“And you may be I mean I I I really truly wrote probably three Gone Girls a total of before I figured out what that was, what I was dealing with, what I what I was wanting to write. And so um lot I always think a lot of writing is stubbornness.”

“And Cool Girl started out that way. I mean, Cool Girl was a writing exercise because I was stuck and I didn't know what the book was. And so I was like, I'm just going to write one writing exercise.”

“And uh and so I I had it in the book then I took it out had it in the book put it back in the book. I really like it though. But she Oh, take it out. And I'm so glad so glad I kept it in the book given what I hear from people how that it mean”

“For instance, I have somewhere on my battered laptop, I've got like Nick's first grade class parent teacher conference written from the point of view of the teacher, meeting both of his parents um uh when he was little and and how she was perceiving the dad in particular and um uh and what so I could get an idea”

“Like the beginning of Casino Royale. Yeah. But Gone Girl is not really like that. I mean, it kind of is, but also I I don't know. It's a little bit slow.”

“And so with Gone Girl, I knew the twist was gonna happen. That that part I for sure do. I didn't know how I was going to end, but I knew the twist was going to happen. And I knew for the twist to be fun. You have to torture people for a while.”

“Um, but at the same time, I don't think that we're giving our readers and our audiences enough credit as far as um that they will do a slow burn as long as something's happening. I mean that and and like you said that's why Gone Girl is like Nick gets his own way.”

“I I mean as as wild as my books get I mean we have children with missing teeth and lakes and we've got you know Gone Girl which is bonkers I will be the first to admit goes to a bonkers place. I think people go there with me cuz I nail things down the logistics and the realities of”

“And you know, I wrote Gone Girl and Nick has a whole passage where he talks about can anything exper can anyone experience anything and actually be shocked or joy truly joyful in the way they would have been 100 years ago at seen an elephant or seeing something because we've seen everything there is to see everything and that”

“I I felt really and still do so lucky to have gotten to adapt Gone Girl to be able to have those two exact also work with David Fincher.”

“And um I saw Seven in the theaters. I went out to get in my car and I saw the next showing was coming up and I'm like I think I'm just going to go back in and watch that. So then to get to have David Fincher be directing Gone Girl was unbelievable.”

“Um, but uh I felt like there was enough there and there was enough plot there. You got a massive amount of plot. I mean that's a piece of clockwork. Something's something's always moving and happening. So I knew I had that and I knew I had some interesting characters”

“And in fact, the first thing he said to me was um because I made it exactly 120 pages. Everyone says, you know, that's 120 pages. It's usually a page a minute. Yeah. The script. Sorry. Um it's usually a page a minute.”

“So uh [laughter] the with Gone Girl, I like the person as a Gone Girl. When I think of my wife, I always think of her head, the shape of it to begin with.”

“Tina Gong Girl by Gillian Flynn. That's the number one book on this list. Number one by a darn mile.”

“In 2012, there was a a giant thriller that came out, Gone Girl by uh Gillian Flynn. Uh this was another massive hit.”

“so you're photographed with the the Great Book gong Girl by Gillian Flynn”

“no I mentioned Gone Girl I think Gone Girl is one that should be on there”

“I read Wild and Gone Girl in Galleys.”

“There'll be a whole chapter of a book one day about Gone Girl because that started my producing career”

“and that movie Gone That movie uh where Ben Affleck's wife fakes her death yeah Gone Girl oh yeah yeah”

“there is a um i think it's called gone girl which was a movie kind of a thriller movie a few years ago”

“And all I can think is I listen to this woman tell story after story about her poor life, which the mother is saying her destitution derby backstory is a lie, too, is about another Amy, another amazing Amy featured in the film Gone Girl,”

“well one thing I think uh is not a big giveaway uh because it's so fundamental to the book is is the structure which I think you know in an odd way um is similar to Gone Girl”

“I wonder if the author of Gone Girl got inspired by this story when she wrote uh book you know do you know do you know that what I'm talking about anyone isn't that the one with affle so the the main the main female characters entire life was uh her her mom wrote books called The Amazing Amy and”

“and she came to say hello because she had seen me photographed carrying a book by one of her authors Gillian Flynn this was in the beautiful storm that was Gone Girl”

“so I was putting together an earlier anthology of short stories by these writers and it was right around the time when Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl came out”

“whether it's Sea Biscuit or Gone Girl and I will fight you about Gone Girl it is a really good book”

“A novel is wonderful to have that having having adapted um two of my novels and knowing what that how you have to change things to make it work on screen. I can say the novel is a luxury because you can go inside someone's head.”