Amit Trivedi Quotes

I write scripts to serve as skeletons awaiting the flesh and sinew of images.

'Just' writing is every bit as important as any other creative part of a film.

I had written a story. I wrote the story out of some desperation, really, and I didn't know I was writing a story, and it took me years. And when I finished, a friend of mine had the idea that the story should be read as a monologue in a theater.

I spent a long time working in the movies to figure out that kind of acting and also how to write and produce for the screen.

Film is very condensed.

Every film is a puzzle really, from an editorial point of view.

I haven't really tried to write a movie. It's tough to get into that mode.

I became fascinated by the fact that you could translate written material into performance.

Film-makers must decide what story to tell and how to tell it.

When you make a film you usually make a film about an idea.

Acting is contained - you act for three months, then leave it - but writing is the act of creation. Writing is dangerous.

To this day I over prepare. I draw storyboards for every scene - chicken scratches so crude that they amuse and horrify the crew. I send out shot lists, act out the scenes, and search for a theme that I can relate to. It's my favorite time of the process.

I believe that acting in any medium is the same thing, it's discovering the truth in where you are.

The magic doesn't come from within the director's mind, it comes from within the hearts of the actors.

For me, when working on a film or play or television show, everything for me starts with the screenplay and I am devoted to that and that is what I work from. Any research I do or any preparation I do on my own is all ultimately in service of that.

At the heart of the failure of most plays is the inability to carry on a thoughtful conversation about your work with yourself.

I've discovered just how symbiotic the relationship is between writers, directors and actors. They ask the same questions and strip down texts in exactly the same way.

For an actor working in television or film, I think it's important to understand how the medium works - how the camera and lenses work and how the sound and the editing works.

I don't know - music in film, for me, is not another part of a soundtrack; it is something that also helps to approach a character, to foresee the type of image - you see what I mean - it's like a part of the process.

The script, I always believe, is the foundation of everything. And if you don't connect to that foundation, if you don't believe in that and feel that you wanna spend three, four months of your life exploring it, then all of the other elements are secondary.

I started out my career as a screenwriter and quickly discovered that adhering to a script isn't always the best way to make a film. You have to take into consideration the nuances of the characters and what the actors bring to their roles.

With acting, there's a certain amount of independence you have within the framework of the storytelling. When it's done well, it's a collaborative medium.

Before 'The Walking Dead,' a few of the jobs before that were just like, 'Ugh.' I try and make everything as creative as possible, even when I get the script and can't imagine what I'm going to do with it.

I've approached every character I've ever played with a poem, first and foremost.

I'm coming from the notion that acting is an art. It is not a business. It is about building characters, not about selling personalities.