The science of the movie screenplay

in which there are a handful of interesting facts, generally concerning Lord of the Rings - 'one of the biggest successful film projects ever' - and most especially the bit where we are instructed ('Screenwriting Pitfalls') never ever to rely on the Deus ex machina, like, and I quote, 'the eagles at the end of The Lord of the Rings'.

Tolkien tells the Nazis

... if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

- JRR Tolkien, on being asked by a German publisher whether he was of Aryan descent

[With thanks to Letters of Note.]