I always feel sorry for directors/actors who are maybe big big fans of a particular book, and really want to make it into a movie but find that they have to compromise for costs, studio expectations, audience feedback etc. It must be hard to make movies - we treat it like a very personal creation like art and novels (we award Oscars for best director, best actor...) but actually it must be very much a team effort - ever seen how many people are listed in movie credits? Or how many production companies are namechecked at the start? An 'ABC' film made by 'XYZ' in association with '123 productions'... imagine having to explain your vision to so many hard-to-impress Hollywood executives!

Perna - I'll have to check that out, I've read some of Leo Rosten's non-fiction, it was excellent, I didn't know he wrote fiction too. Thanks!