Quotes About Storytelling

As far as the creative side, the more I do this, the more I know that it's all about the writing. We don't always celebrate that enough, but without the writing, you can't do much. You got on a film sometimes, and it's sort of half-written, and they expect and think that the actor's job is to bring the extra part and the good part. It's not.

Whosoever counts these Lays as fable, may be assured that I am not of his mind.

I think the charm of 'Fable' was in the feeling of the world and definitely the humor.

I could program a 'fabulous, I love it' kind of hit season right now. I'm more interested in breaking boundaries, telling a story, defying a truth that has been accepted.

When I'm writing stuff, I need to watch the scene in my head, like a little movie, or else it just feels stupid. It just feels very written. There are things that actors do and faces they make and pauses they take and their rhythms. You need that.

To me, length is an artificial and arbitrary factor in a film.

Too many writers get into that gross-'em-out factor.

The emotions of the actors are better when they understand the chronological factors that are adding to the story.

Facts are not interesting to me.

To do a movie about someone who actually lived gives you two responsibilities. You have to try to be accurate to the facts of what he did and what he was like as a character. Then, at the same time, you have a responsibility to make a movie that entertains and can get an audience.

I lost my wife to cancer and I saw the impact of telling my story - this is what happened, this is what God did and why he was faithful.

If the character is true, the movie will fall into place. Or at least that's what you hope.

Becoming a writer, and then a director, was taking my creative life in my own hands, and wanting to have stories that I wanted to put out into the world - and I have fallen in love with directing.

I often have trouble falling asleep at night, so when I'm lying in bed I think up stories. That's where I do a lot of my thinking. I also get a lot of ideas while I'm reading - sometimes reading someone else's stories will make me think of one of my own.

When you do scenes that are just exposition, they feel false.

Making fake biography, false history, concocting a half-imaginary existence out of the actual drama of my life is my life.

I've never played Dungeons & Dragons, but I'm actually pretty familiar with it.

I've done a number of things in the spirit of employee motivation. I tend to be a storyteller and a student of history. I often tell stories of great battles, like the battle of Thermopylae, to inspire teams who face what appear to be insurmountable odds.

I am fascinated by storytelling glue. Anytime I see someone who's good at it, I stop and wonder, 'How'd they 'do this? Why can't I tear myself away?

A strong story can move me to tears, and it doesn't matter whether it's a science-fiction or fantasy world. It's about what happens to a person, the choices they make. That's what's interesting.

Sometimes I'll write without the guitar or the piano, but most of the time I'll be playing and just improvising some words. And when I get something that sounds good, a line with a story in it, I'll try and tease it out and figure out where the story is going.

Few reporters get to do what Kelly McEvers does in every episode of 'Embedded': go deep into a story and tease out what is really happening.

I, in middle school, started really, really liking country music because it tells a story. It's really dramatic; I'm really dramatic. There's a lot of emotion. It was like, 'This is a perfect fit,' and I was teased mercilessly for it.

I have on my wall right now a front page of the 'Journal' from January 1991, when I co-wrote a front-page story about Iraq firing missiles at Israel. By October, I was writing about tech products.