Luca Guadagnino Quotes

Marc Cherry is so good at writing himself into a corner, then writing himself out of that corner. It's really fun to watch that.

I have the 'thing' worked out - the trick or the surprise or the pivotal fact. Then I just start somewhere and let the story work itself out.

It's nice to know when you're a part of a story, it's nice to know at least something about the beginning, middle, and end.

In a story, you have to have a theme and an angle, you have to have a beginning, middle and an end. You have to have a defining moment and kick it to death. You gotta be able to recognize that, by the way. It probably takes experience.

The point about a great story is that it's got a beginning, a middle and end.

I like shape very much. A novel has to have shape, and life doesn't have any.

Writing a screenplay is like writing a big puzzle, and so the hardest part, I think, is getting the story.

Everything you write makes you better. But if you really need a tip, here's one: a good story begins in opposition to its ending. That means you work out how it finishes first, and then begin the story as far away from that point - in terms of character development - as you can.

A structure is a bit like a story. People will go along with you - they see where you're going.

Obviously, you're always happy when you can tell a story completely from beginning to end and tell it in a satisfying way, where you're able to make yourself happy and make the audience happy.

I care about narrative structure; I care about how stories unfold.

I'm good at description and imparting flow to a story, but I don't necessarily understand the value of long scenes.

I never let the technical stuff get in the way of the storytelling.

Well, I think if you're telling a story, a three act structure will just naturally emerge out of it. But I also love it when a film doesn't feel like it's anchored too rigidly to that structure and you feel like anything could happen.

The first lie of fiction is that the author gives some order to the chaos of life: chronological order, or whatever order the author chooses.

To combine telling an interesting story with brilliantly written characters is the most difficult thing to do.

A novel requires a certain kind of world-building and also a certain kind of closure, ultimately. Whereas with a short story you have this sense that there are hinges that the reader doesn't see.

Without sounding too pretentious, I was sort of a slave to the narrative. When the narrative cracks in, I have to go where it takes me. I had to go to the Bohemian Grove. It was the obvious end to the book.

Plot is what happens in your story. Every story needs structure, just as every body needs a skeleton. It is how you 'flesh out and clothe' your structure that makes each story unique.

As a rule, anyone who can tell a good story can write one, so there really need be no mistake about his qualification; such a man will be careful not to be wearisome, and to keep his point, or his catastrophe, well in hand.

A subplot is a distinguishing characteristic of the novel; the short story, for example, does not need subplots.

I have struggles in screenwriting that lead me to a third act that's always more or less efficiently wrapped up in a fourth act that's trying to give closure to too many things.

To just tell a story from beginning, middle and end doesn't motivate me that much.

There is no other way of writing a novel than to begin at the beginning at to continue to the end.

Unless the story line carries the scenes, the scenes don't really mean anything.