"It's so hard to write a screenplay and Art was always complaining to me about the process he was going through. "I felt it was best to leave him alone to give him as much space as possible."
On screen, De Niro's character is constantly on edge over the public's reaction to his upcoming thriller 'Fiercely' - despairing at the poor scorecards collected after the screening (one simply reads: 'F**k you!'). Linson points out - with a hint of jealousy - that De Niro himself will never find himself in a situation where no one returns his calls if a film is not well received. He said: "Of course it's always good when a film is well received. But no matter what they feel about a film Bob just did, they know they're always going to need him again. Sadly, they don't feel the same way about producers.
"It's happened to me so many times I don't even like to recall the pain. I imagine it to be like childbirth. My first film profoundly bombed, you couldn't give it away."
De Niro added: "I was thinking that it's not that nobody returns your calls, it's that nobody calls you. I haven't experienced it first hand, but the fact that a movie is not received well initially does not always mean a lot.
"I do think test screenings have a validity. I know directors who take them very seriously. I'm impressed with how they gage certain things. But sometimes they don't work - it depends on what kind of movie it is."
Both Linson and De Niro have carved out stellar careers from themselves in the movie business. They have collaborated on blockbusters such as 'The Untouchables', 'Heat' and 'Great Expectations' and are both multi-millionaires.
So isn't a film which mocks the pretension of an industry, portrayed as fickle and ruthless, a bit like biting the hand that feeds you? "I never saw it like that," Linson explains, "because the hand that feeds is some God-like presence that nobody can even take a meeting with anymore.
"Everybody, including executives, seem to be under the same pressure. Everybody's like a snail on a piece of glass trying not to slide down - hanging on for dear life. And I think that's what makes it so funny."
Most people can relate to being in a position where they didn't like their job and fancied a complete change at some point in their working life - it's just a case of finding something else, handing in your notice and leaving, isn't it?
"You never leave Hollywood," insisted Linson in all seriousness, "it leaves you."