“Regardless of whether or not my name appears on the screen among the credits, I’m not afraid that anybody will think I wrote this stuff. They’ll know damn well I didn’t. I shouldn’t have minded in the least if you had produced a better script—believe me. I shouldn’t. But if you wanted something written in skim milk, why on earth did you bother to come to me in the first place? What a waste of money! What a waste of time! It’s no answer to say that I was well paid. Nobody can be adequately paid for wasting his time.”
—
From a letter written by Raymond Chandler to Alfred Hitchcock in regards to the final script for “Strangers on a Train.”
That said, on its worst days, advertising is being adequately paid for wasting your time. On its best days, it’s being adequately paid for producing ideas that waste other people’s.
