Adventure took him over: Towne, “Growing Up.”
“You know, I can’t honestly say”: http://grouchoreviews.com/interviews/147.
“I always start out saying”: Michael Sragow, “Darkness at the Edge of Towne.”
The wholesale houses: Towne, “Growing Up.”
The brick buildings of Beacon Street: Ibid.
paint-splattered Philco radio: Robert Towne, “In the Water, in the Air, in L.A.,” Sports Illustrated, Aug. 6, 1984.
listening to Joe Hernandez: Ibid.
“which dictated my future profession”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6r7exIYOo8.
“At the time this movie came out”: Mort Sahl Live #5, Studio 31, Mar. 21, 1992.
“the notion that some things”: Ibid.
“I have no regrets”: Engel, “Foreword,” Screenwriters, p. xii
“It’s a lot more efficient”: Mort Sahl Live #5.
“I needed [to find] the architecture”: Julie Payne to author.
He read Morrow Mayo’s account: Towne, “Dialogue on Film.”
a rare find at Aldine’s bookshop: Julie Payne to author.
“Everything seemed trite and untrue”: Hunter, “Towne and City.”
which his assistant got: Julie Payne to author.
“I just knew that”: Barbara Isenberg, “Dusting Off the Memories,” Los Angeles Times, Mar. 5, 2006.
“If there’s a better piece of fiction”: Warga, “Writer Towne.”
“World War II hadn’t happened”: “Commentary,” Chinatown DVD.
Nicholson was playing tennis: Academy Screening, Nov. 18, 2004.
Nicholson, he knew, was a popinjay: “Commentary,” Chinatown DVD.
“Look at my perfect teardrop nostrils”: Ibid.
“[In] most detective movies I have ever seen”: Towne, “Dialogue on Film.”
his detective would do divorce work: Ibid.
“I thought that taking someone like that”: Ibid.
“So I decided to do a movie”: Peter Rainer, “Chinatown’s Robert Towne,” Mademoiselle, Nov. 1974.
the girl, Barrie Chase: Barrie Chase to author.
“I grew up having”: Ibid.
“My father was a patriot”: Ibid.
“It was aesthetically slumming”: Engel, Screenwriters, 200.
“ashamed to be in the movie business”: Barrie Chase to author.
“Don’t you know my name?”: Ibid.
“I want to go out with your daughter”: Ibid.
Towne was shocked that she had already been married: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6r7exIYOo8.
narrated tales of its origins: Barrie Chase to author.
“I don’t speak to my father”: Ibid.
When Jack moved out: Ibid.
“It seemed like he had every mystery”: Sarah Naia Stier to author.
“Edward was stoic”: Mike Koepf, letter to Virginia Kennerley.
“They were in love”: Sarah Naia Stier to author.
Eddie would always say Robert had saved his life: Virginia Kennerley to author.
“Everything Robert wrote, he ran past Eddie”: Barrie Chase to author.
“My father didn’t seem”: Sarah Naia Stier to author.
“He wanted to make enough”: Ibid.
“Robert didn’t hardly leave his desk”: Barrie Chase to author.
“Robert,” she would say: Ibid.
“You’re going to kill me…”: Dialogue, per Barrie Chase, written into the last scene of Shampoo.
Man, he thought, I never saw such purity: Hal Ashby Collection, folder 236, Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles.
“So much of writing”: “Commentary,” Ask the Dust DVD.
Hold the feeling: Ibid.
A hustler’s name: John Brady, The Craft of the Screenwriter, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013), 417.
“Jake is a good name”: Ibid.
A mother protecting her child: Towne, “Dialogue on Film.”
On February 26, 1971: Charles Lederer Family Papers, Chinatown—Notes 1971, 3-f.1, Margaret Herrick Library.
By March 6: Ibid.
“[The villain] must be the expert”: Charles Lederer Family Papers, Chinatown—Notes 1971/Undated legal pact 3f.1. Margaret Herrick Library.
“I wrote at least twenty different step outlines”: Towne, “Dialogue on Film.”
By March 17: Charles Lederer Family Papers, Chinatown—Notes 1971, 3-f.1, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Notes on Gittes”: Charles Lederer Family Papers, Chinatown—photocopied notes by Robert Towne circa 1974, “Notes on Gittes,” 3-f.2, page 1, Margaret Herrick Library.
“It wasn’t,” he typed: Ibid., 1.
“almost rude quantities of charm”: Ibid., 2.
“It was a great show”: Ibid., 3.
“Look out for your client”: Charles Lederer Family Papers, Chinatown—Notes 1971, 3-f.1, Margaret Herrick Library.
“The dream that died”: Ibid.
On April 19: “Don’t Get Lost in Chinatown,” Apr. 19, 1971, Chinatown—Notes 1971, 3-f.1, Charles Lederer Family Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles.
“Today his idea of gambling”: Ibid.
On June 21: Ibid.
He liked the sound: “Commentary,” Chinatown DVD.
“He must be a Christ-like”: Chinatown—Notes 1971, Charles Lederer Family Papers, 3-f.1, Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles.
“Someone is going to want”: Ibid.
“Gittes must come up against”: Ibid.
“Create the impression”: Ibid.
“‘What’s the point?’”: Ibid.
On June 28: Ibid.
“Perhaps the action takes place”: Ibid.
“The water commissioner found dead”: Ibid.
“How to tie in Marian”: Ibid.
“She’s the illegitimate daughter”: Ibid.
“My interest is in the kinds”: Charles Lederer Family Papers Chinatown—Notes 1971/Undated legal pact, 3f.1, Margaret Herrick Library.
“Julian Cross, The Sun King”: Ibid.
The Third Coming? The Julian Spoils: Ibid.
“If Marian is his illegitimate daughter”: Ibid.
“Julian Cross is an eminent”: Ibid.
“Katherine—must be upset”: Ibid.
Helen and Lou Towne lived: Julie Payne to author.
“They had no sense”: Ibid.
“A writer was either”: Towne, “In the Water, in the Air, in L.A.”
“Robert always [implied]”: Julie Payne to author.
his mother wrote poetry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6r7exIYOo8.
“Lou Towne’s outlook”: Julie Payne to author.
“a bottle of vodka,”: Ibid.
“He gave her guilt jewelry”: Ibid.
“Nobody’s getting me”: Ibid.
“What can I do?”: Ibid.
“‘Chinatown’ by Towne”: Chinatown—photocopied notes by Robert Towne circa 1974, Charles Lederer Family Papers, 3-f.2, page 1, Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles.