Peter Maas had written a biography of Serpico, and I was given a film treatment to look at that had been made from his book. Let me tell you, it read like this: He does this. Then he does that. Then he goes here. Then he goes there. Like the book I’m writing now. You read it and you say, well, yes? It’s like saying, Hamlet comes home. Then he sees his father. Then he goes to his mother. Yeah, nice. So it didn’t interest me. I needed more than that.
