DAMON LINDELOF

I believe that this idea of story or myth or this thing that Joseph Campbell writes about is sort of an inter-connective spiritual force - like The Force in 'Star Wars' - where it doesn't matter where you were raised, or what your background is, there are certain elements of story that totally appeal to you.

I've always believed that a good twist is one that, when it is presented to the audience, half of them say, 'I saw that coming.' And half of them are completely and totally shocked. Because if you don't have the half that saw it coming, then it wasn't fair: You never gave the audience a chance to guess it.

I was born in 1973, so I did not see 'Alien' when it was released theatrically. I saw 'Alien' when it was on Home Box Office. I think I was probably 10.

I think that 'The Shield' was a phenomenal series finale.

Good twists are enormously hard to come by, and I think the best ones are earned ones. The idea that a story can take a left turn on you, it's easy to do, but it has to be done very, very carefully, or else you risk losing the audience's trust.

My gravestone will say, 'Here Lies Damon Lindelof - Or Does He?'

The fun thing about doing origin stories is you are introducing the audience to characters.

I have found, unfortunately, that if I take on too many projects at one time, there is a higher probability of those projects sucking.

There is no suspense in inevitability.

When someone says something in an interview, the beauty of Twitter is that it's a platform for instantaneous response.

Essentially, there's no scientific evidence whatsoever that could ever be presented to me that would wipe out my fundamental spiritual beliefs.

When someone says something that really hurts me, I have to retweet it to let it go.

I remember what it was like to be doing 'Lost' and how creatively immersive it was. I just couldn't really engage on anything else, other than 'Lost;' I was just thinking about it all the time, and then there was just the pure workload, the 70- or 80-hour weeks.

We all look at ourselves in the mirror and think, 'Am I good?'

I'm not sitting around thinking of ideas for TV shows.

I love finding new creative partnerships but then continuing the partnerships I'm already in.

I'll never be immune to criticism, and that's okay, and I'm very comfortable with that.

There is a reason behind life. There is some connectivity between living beings. Whether you want to call that 'God' or 'The Force' or whatever word you use for it, I do believe in a spiritualized mechanism.

I feel like great TED Talks are ones that are a little bit subject to interpretation, that do provoke further conversation - and potentially controversy.

A lot of writers whom I love, admire and call friends share this feeling, which is this fundamental idea that we're frauds. That we will be pushed out on to the stage, and it will be revealed that the emperor has no clothes.

I think that, at the end of the day, I'm drawn to a certain level of ambiguous storytelling that requires hard thought and work in the same way that the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle does: Sometimes you just want to put it down or throw it out the window, but there's a real rewarding sense if you feel like you've cracked it.

All great sci-fi is: Be careful what you wish for.

I've always felt that really good prequels should be original movies.

I love the 'Lost' ending. I stand by it, but there are a lot of people out there who hate it.

I look at myself more as a storyteller than a screenwriter, as pretentious as that may sound, but that's what really attracts me to TED Talks. For me, the really effective ones are being presented by expert storytellers.