Patrick Wilson Quotes

I think in telling a good story there has to be ups and downs with any character, and you can't just have everything go swimmingly and you can't just have characters who are supposed to be in a romantic relationship just getting into an argument every episode.

And if Hollywood has taught us anything, it's that cool props and special effects are not enough. Story comes first. Everything depends on story.

I try not to repeat a story. I try not to repeat an emotion. I want it to be all sort of new for the viewers and to challenge myself as a writer, so there's always pressure. What else can you come up with?

Whether you're writing a horror show or a James Bond film, I think what bubbles beneath is interesting characterization. The colors that emerge through storytelling is what a dramatist does. There's always got to be something bubbling underneath that will erupt at some point.

If you create a good story that has a lot of story value... I think audiences like that. It's why they stick with the same TV show over and over.

The luxury we have when we do a series is that we go through a long journey, and it keeps a lot of information and things to be revealed.

If you know exactly what your character knows, it's a drama.

In order to deliver the emotional truth in the story, you have to include some of the literal truth.

I look at scripts really for whether they can be moving or penetrate some kind of truth. You are constantly chasing that feeling as an actor when every part of a production comes together.

What can I say: I'm a writer - I enjoy forcing pain and suffering on my characters!

I love intricate plotting and exciting twists, but I realize more that people enjoy a good story in a simple, focused way.

It might sound glib, but in a sense, as an actor I'm a journalist and a psychologist recording life and truth.

Octavia Butler was more interested in writing a good story than in worrying about where to slot it.

As long as your storytelling and emotional depth are intact, that's what people will focus on.

Acting is many things. Acting is playing lines, of course, but it's much more profound than that. Acting is truth-telling and trying to find the truth in a human situation, which will be sketched out by a screenwriter with all the skill that a screenwriter can do; but in the end, that's just the map of the journey.

With any role I play, I find out what the human problem is first.

My approach is always the same. I try to be as honest as possible. Find the real honesty and humanity in the character because even a fictional character is supposed to feel real. And my job is to find that reality and bring it to the screen.

It's much better to write a book and stick to the research - that's history. In cinema, emotional truth and psychological truth is much more important.

The way that I work as an actress, I always prefer to read the whole story and tell the whole story and feel what the whole story's going to be, the journey for the audience and how it ebbs and flows, the highs and the lows.

I don't just look at things as an actor. I've also written several films, so I look at it as a storyteller and I know if something worked and should have been in there for the benefit of the story and the benefit of the character.

A two-hour movie tends to be a plot-delivery device; you tend to have to introduce all the characters, say what the goal is, and then get there with a setback, but that's not really how life is or what a story necessarily wants to be.

You have to think about good storytelling and characters first. Then hopefully, the rest of that stuff will follow, some more than others. But if you don't have a good film and strong characters, then you don't have anything down the road.

All of the good movies are based on how that story was told. And you cannot do it with a bad script, that's for sure, no matter who.

If I really knew how to do good storytelling, I would be a writer. Mystery is not a huge part of it. ... It's tension, it's relationships. I think it's a struggle.

With a film, things constantly have to go up in the story, and you're constantly putting pressure on the main character. It allows to go really deep into what its relationship is.