Screenwriting manuals typically walk readers through key structural elements and techniques, using famous scenes as their guide. Here, however, screenwriters Hunter and Gifford provide a wonderful collection of interviews with 22 Oscar-winning screenwriters, mostly conducted in front of an audience of students and professors as part of Hunter’s UCLA graduate course. Legendary writers such as Francis Ford Coppola, William Goldman, Oliver Stone, Callie Khouri, and Billy Wilder move between anecdotal stories and the minutiae of a writer’s process, with a healthy dose of insider information on the business side of Hollywood screenwriting. A clever and original look at the art of screenwriting.

Library Journal

Hunter collects interviews with 22 prize-winning screenwriters in this top-notch volume spanning his career as a UCLA professor, revealing each artist 'bar[ing] their art, soul, craft, and secrets.' The notable screenwriters range across generations.... The interviews feature plenty of helpful tips, among them The Godfather’s Francis Ford Coppola’s recommendation to carry a notebook to jot down character sketches, while Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Howard’s End) explains her choice to write in longhand so she can include drawings. Hunter writes with a playful flair in his introduction: 'for the rest of this book, motion-picture yourself at UCLA at my 434 master screenwriting class.' .... [The} volume offers unique access to a wide array of talent. It’s a treasure trove for Hollywood historians and aspiring screenwriters alike.

Publishers Weekly

In sincere hopes that something has been provided within Lew Hunter’s collection of interviews Naked Screenwriting that will be useful to our beloved young cinema artists.

Francis Ford Coppola

Lew Hunter, a legendary teacher of screenwriting, has assembled the ultimate masters class. What an extraordinary resource! If you’re passionate about movies and the scripts that inspire them, you need to get NAKED.

Ted Tally, Academy Award-winning screenwriter

How awesome for the reader to experience what it feels like to be on the inside of this process. A crash course from some of the most decorated writers and producers of our time!

Anna Marie Sinatra, TV and radio personality, author, and speaker, SinatraSolutions.com

Novice and professional screenwriters alike can find advice and solace from this marvelous collection of interviews. Lew is a master teacher, and this book extends his work in the classroom to us all.

Alexander Payne, director and Oscar-winning co-writer of Sideways