Quotes About Storytelling

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.

When we raised the first Foundry Group fund in 2007, we took over 100 first meetings. We told our story several hundred times. As part of it was a slide called 'Strategy.' I still repeat the elements of that slide regularly, a decade later, as our core strategy has not changed.

I've always had an idealistic streak about storytelling in that I believe we owe more to audiences than repeatedly bludgeoning them over the head while stealing their lunch money. We owe them inspiration. That's why I'm more interested now in creating new heroes than hooking up jumper cables to old ones.

My films usually start with an idea that I get while walking the streets. For example, I got the idea for 'Guard Dog' when I was walking in the park and I saw a dog barking at a bird.

That's the beauty of short films; their strength lies in delivering a message creatively and simply.

I have always thought if you are going to make a film, it's much better to have an original script that will play to film's strengths.

I'm always trying to make something that is impossible to film. Why would somebody just read a novel when they can see it on TV or in the cinema? I really have to think of the things fiction can do that film can't and play to the strengths of the novel. With a novel, you can get right inside somebody's head.

Investigative pieces tend to be great stories because they haven't been told before. The process can be frustrating and stressful, but the result is often deeply rewarding.

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.

Hats off to Julian and Johnny, the producers, for sticking to their guns with the five-season story arc of 'Merlin'. It would have been too easy to give in to demand and stretch the show on beyond their original plan because of its incredible success.

Some documentaries are made by people who are driven more by one particular story, or have different backgrounds or ambitions, but I'm always looking for projects that let me be the best filmmaker I can be, and to be stretched and grow further.

Sometimes I make up songs, and they're just strictly fiction. Other times, I draw on things that have happened in my life or friends, women, all sorts of things.

I'm just trying to write a good story, strictly from imagination. People just think it's random, they don't see the rewriting, phrasing of characters, choosing the words, bringing the world to light in which the characters live in. That creates an illusion that this is real.

You gotta make sure the listener is listening to you, so if you put it into a song, often times, if the song is striking enough, then you can really deliver the story most effectively while keeping the ear of the listener the whole time.

Taking a comic strip character is very hard to write. Because comics are meant to work in one page, to work in frames with minimalistic dialogue. And a lot of it is left to the imagination of the reader. To do that in film, you've got to be a little more explanatory. And that requires a good screenplay and good dialogue.

I just always loved the storytelling aspect. Even with the production that's happening right now in music, I still think the core of country songs are very stripped down, and they tell a story in the most pure sense.

I'd like to think that we strive in film and theatre to tell great stories, and I believe in the power of storytelling in our culture.

We're constantly striving to bring something new and different to the table, either in the way that we're using the cameras, or the storytelling we're using in the scene, or the way that the characters are being motivated by the action.

Stand-up is very broad strokes, kind of a skeleton of a story or something.

I do always the music before the lyrics. The story or an idea for the lyrics appears during the composing process normally, but some other times I already have a strong idea of the story I would like to sing before any music comes to my mind.

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.

I think films about men are often about characters who don't want to express their feelings. You're supposed to kind of admire them for not expressing their feelings. And I feel that's a bit dull. Women's stories often have stronger emotional content, which I enjoy doing. What I really love doing is mixing that with humor.

I feel, in drama, you don't need to be fed everything. Even though sometimes when you watch, you want to know what happened and you want to see it, I feel like sometimes it's so much stronger to see the effects that those actions have had.