Brian De Palma introduced me to Paul Schrader. We made a pilgrimage out to see Manny Farber, the critic, in San Diego. I wanted Paul to do a script of “The Gambler” by Dostoevsky for me. But Brian took Paul out for dinner, and they contrived it so I couldn’t find them. By the time I tracked them down, three hours later, they’d cooked up “Obsession.” But Brian told me that Paul had this script, “Taxi Driver,” that he didn’t want to do or couldn’t do at that time, and wondered if I’d be interested in reading it. So I read it and my friend [Sandy Weintraub] read it and she said it was fantastic:
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