Writers are often afraid of what others will do with their precious scripts. They’ll make the dialog “actor proof” and the scenes rigid and “director proof.” But that leaves no room for other artists to do their best work. Making movies is a collaborative effort. Script writers need to leave room for the Mike Nichols of the world to bring the words to life. IMHO a brilliant script that can’t be translated into a decent movie is a waste of paper.

Great stuff. The Graduate is a masterpiece and it's fascinating to hear from Nichols on its making. Unfortunately, I don't think there are many directors of Nichols' caliber. So many of the scripts that I read before seeing the movie suffer from a poor execution.