Quotes About Narrative

That is the gods' work, spinning threads of death through the lives of mortal men, an all to make a song for those to come.

The problem with trying to make a film good and have it work for an audience is the problem of trying to tell a story well. The shape or the color of it doesn't matter.

I think what makes a good action film is a story that gets you involved. Just action, by itself, is not going to work.

I've always wanted to figure out how to do a walking story. I'd never figured out how to do one and have it work or be interesting or have anything that it's about.

Horror is great storytelling with scary elements on top of it, but if you don't have great storytelling, you can have all the scares in the world, but the movie won't work.

Much of my work has been done in first person.

Whether you work in news, sport, politics, whatever, it's exactly the same; a story is a story, is a story. I consider myself first and foremost a journalist.

Writing is a process of discovering. I could never outline a narrative; that just sounds boring. There's no joy of discovery in what you're doing if that's your strategy.

Fans are always talking about endgame as though endgame has been chosen from minute 1. I don't know that you could talk to a single series creator that would say confidently 'Where I started is where I finished, and there was no way in hell I was going to stray from that path.' 'Dawson's' being the perfect example.

You do a film and you know where you're going, you have this material to stretch and play with as much as possible because you know how it ends.

You can't take a story and just stretch it out - that does not a novel make.

Everything starts with what's on the page, what a writer has come up with. And whether it is a big studio film or independent film, is the story being well told? Is it interesting? Is the character interesting? And is there something about the character that may stretch me?

I personally love working for finite series as it's important to convey that stories need not be stretched; they can get over in a year and still be loved by audiences.

I organise my work in the form of a daily diary. Each chapter is strictly chronological but is also monothematic - say, a war, a set of peace negotiations, a joust.

My idea in terms of managing a narrative, or in thinking in my creative life, is that you could easily argue that the past, the present and the future all occur simultaneously, and if you can postulate that, then you're not strictly bound to a linear narrative.

Over the years I have become convinced that we learn best - and change - from hearing stories that strike a chord within us.

I think there has to be an empathic strike between the reader and the protagonist. There has to be something said or known that connects the reader to this person you're going to ride through the story with.

Balanchine was just able to strike the balance between literal narrative and abstract dance.

There are a lot of shows that have secrets and string people along and use the secrets of the narrative engine to keep people coming back every week. I don't know if those programs even have an answer. I don't know how they build their shows.

I never storyboard. I hate it. I don't understand why so many directors want to make comic strips of their films.

I don't know how much I believe in redemptive stories, even though people want them and strive for them.

A short story can be really interesting and enriching and powerful, but a novel just contains so much more information and richness and depth. That's what I strive for in my music. I want to create something that's like a longform statement.

Writing children's books gives a writer a very strong sense of narrative drive.

My goal with 'Beyond' is really to create a strong sense of empathy between the player and Jodie Holmes.