John Sayles – Hope For Film

10 Embarrassing Brushes With Celebrities

By Jack Lechner

1. 1985. I’m taking the bus from my job in Manhattan to my shared walkup in Hoboken. The guy who plunks down across from me is none other than John Sayles, one of my heroes on Earth. I know I should say something to him, something clever and charming – but I can’t, because I begin to shake uncontrollably at the very sight of him. I’m still shaking when he gets off the bus in Hoboken.

2. 1987. I’m on an awards jury in LA. Before the meeting starts, someone mentions seeing a crappy summer movie. “Have you ever seen SUMMER LOVERS?” I ask. “It couldn’t possibly be worse than that.” Right on cue, a man sits down to join us. It’s Randal Kleiser – the director of SUMMER LOVERS. (He’s surprisingly gracious about it.)

3. 1987. I watch a brilliant short film from Columbia University, by a young director named Nicole Holofcener.

by John Sayles

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The first storytelling I got to do was as a novelist in the 1970s, and in those days there was a phenomenon known as the ‘vanity press’. Today we would call it ‘self-publishing’ with little hint of derision, but back then it was considered something lesser, tacky in a way, amateurs so deluded about their lack of talent they ponied up and paid somebody to print their work and then gave it away as presents to their friends. There were exceptions made for ideologues– medical, philosophical or political– who were too far out for even the most adventurous publishers, but though their plight was understood these people were considered to be mere pamphleteers rather than ‘professional writers’. A professional writer didn’t pay to be published, and in many cases got an advance against royalties from their publisher. My first advance for a novel was for $2,500 in 1975, when the minimum wage was slightly over a dollar an hour. Two years ago I got a $3,000 advance for my novel A Moment in the Sun. Minimum wage, thankfully, has advanced more steadily than my earning power as a novelist. But it was still a big deal to

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