8 Quotes & Sayings By Trevanian

Trevanian was born in El Dorado, Arkansas in 1947. He became a film student at the University of Southern California, but dropped out after failing to get into the school of his choice, the University of California at Los Angeles. He went on to make his first film, The Killing Kind (1975), in which he played the lead role opposite Jessica Walter. After The Killing Kind, Trevanian moved to Hollywood and lived in a small apartment in which he wrote screenplays without success Read more

During this period he also worked as a writer for television shows such as The Love Boat, Dallas, Dynasty, and The A-Team. His screenplay for the 1977 thriller Charley Varrick was later rewritten by William Goldman into the novel The Long Goodbye. In 1981 Trevanian moved to New York City to pursue his writing career.

He continued to write screenplays for television shows including Simon & Simon and Murder She Wrote, but none were produced for production. His screenplay Spinning Gold was produced by Robert Evans but failed at the box office. Trevanian spent much of his time living off royalties from his earlier novels Manhunter and Charley Varrick which had been adapted into films by Michael Mann and Peter Bogdanovich respectively.

By 1991 Trevanian's financial situation had deteriorated to the point that he was forced to sell his story about Satanism called Hellfire Club for $250,000 to Paramount Pictures just before Christmas 1991. This money was used to finance Spinning Gold (1992) which was released by Warner Bros..

1
Confession is good for the soul, it empties the spirit making more room for sin. Trevanian
2
Irony is Fate's most common figure of speech. Trevanian
3
And he recalled the ancient adage: Who must do the harsh things? He who can. Trevanian
4
It was not their irritating assumption of equality that annoyed Nicholai so much as their cultural confusions. The Americans seemed to confuse standard of living with quality of life, equal opportunity with institutionalized mediocrity, bravery with courage, machismo with manhood, liberty with freedom, wordiness with articulation, fun with pleasure - in short, all of the misconceptions common to those who assume that justice implies equality for all, rather than equality for equals. Trevanian
5
Ripe for romance? Is that not only the self-conscious and sensitive young man's way of saying he was heavy with passion? Is not, perhaps, romance only the fiction by means of which the tender-minded negotiate their lust? Trevanian
6
It's not Americans I find annoying; it's Americanism: a social disease of the postindustrial world that must inevitably infect each of the mercantile nations in turn, and is called 'American' only because your nation is the most advanced case of the malady, much as one speaks of Spanish flu, or Japanese Type-B encephalitis. It's symptoms are a loss of work ethic, a shrinking of inner resources, and a constant need for external stimulation, followed by spiritual decay and moral narcosis. You can recognize the victim by his constant efforts to get in touch with himself, to believe his spiritual feebleness is an interesting psychological warp, to construe his fleeing from responsibility as evidence that he and his life are uniquely open to new experiences. In the later stages, the sufferer is reduced to seeking that most trivial of human activities: fun. . Trevanian
7
Niko? I have decided to christen this little pool Le Cagot's Soul.""Oh?""Yes. Because it is clear and pure and lucid."" And treacherous and dangerous?"" You know, Niko, I begin to suspect that you are a man of prose. It is a blemish on you."" No one's perfect."" Speak for yourself. Trevanian