John Sayles — American Director born on September 28, 1950,

John Thomas Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Passion Fish and Lone Star . His film Men with Guns has been nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. His directorial debut, Return of the Secaucus 7 , has been added to the National Film Registry... (wikipedia)

I remember being out here at the Sunset Marquis, and whoever knocked on the door, I would take that picture that I was writing and I would put that in the typewriter, so when I had the meeting, they would say: 'Oh, you're working on it right now?'
I made it about a three-day weekend so people wouldn't have to change their clothes a lot. We didn't have an art department; we didn't have a make-up department.
I've always felt like I was on the margins. Once upon a time that's what independent used to mean.
To this day, I get rewrite offers where they say: 'We feel this script needs work with character, dialogue, plot and tone,' and when you ask what's left, they say: 'Well, the typing is very good.'
I never thought about being a writer as I grew up. A writer wasn't something I wanted to be. An outfielder was something to be. Most of what I know about style I learned from Roberto Clemente.