Writer’s Desk: Don’t Be Fussy

Terry Southern, who was born this day in 1924, was a writer familiar with the movies. He adapted other people’s work—freely satirizingPeter George’s thriller novelRed Alert into Dr. Strangelove—and had his own work put on screen—Buck Henry adapted Southern’s sexual fantasiaCandy for filmin 1968.

So, when Southern has advice about writers whose work is so (un?)lucky to be optioned by Hollywood, it’s best to listen:

If a writer is sensitive about his work being treated like Moe, Larry and Curly...