Patrick Marber Quotes

I think every actor wants a certain amount of control. Maybe not control, as such, but just to be part of the process. But it's not necessary, I guess.

On one level, all of the characters in 'Game of Thrones' grow out of George R.R. Martin's imagination. Therefore they are his. As long as they are in the novels they are his. But the moment they step forth onto the TV screen, they become filtered through the showrunners. In a business sense, it's the same way with comics.

I feel so disassociated from my writing - whether it's in book form or magazine - that I sometimes have a hard time believing that it's mine.

The work is the work. The work is not me. I like the anonymity that directors can have about their films. Even though it's my voice, I'm a storyteller.

One of the reasons I never had a problem handing over my characters to other creators is that I knew that they would add their own influences and takes on the characters and make them better for it.

That's the problem today: Who is the creator?

I do not like people writing songs and then other people singing them. A lot of people don't even sing their own songs anymore. It's like producers these days have ghost producers; 'I don't produce, but I am a producer.'

Be careful that you do not write or paint anything that is not your own, that you don't know in your own soul.

When I want to put out an album, I want to write it. I want to be able to say that I wrote my album, and all this stuff is from me.

No one touches me when I write my story, unless I hire you to or I allow you to.

What I do is draw but if you make an animated feature obviously it takes a whole team of people, and Zippy is my work. I felt that turning it over to a team of people would be wrong.

I felt, selfishly, that if there was going to be a TV show about 'Hannibal Lecter' whether I was going to be involved or not, I'd rather be involved. I wanted to make sure it was something I wanted to watch.

I understand that when people read my books that there's something there - but I don't identify with it.

Whether it's writing a monologue or writing standup or writing a screenplay or writing a play, I think staying involved in the creation of your own work empowers you in a way, even if you don't ever do it. It gives you a sense of ownership and a sense of purpose, which I think as an actor is really important.

A writer is supposed to have anonymity.

I would never want my name on something that I did not write most of. Part of television is you get rewritten.

Many people can contribute suggestions to a speech, but only one person can write it.

It's not very often that you get to come up with ideas and bring your take on the character and then actually have writers, producers, and directors pay attention to it.

If you write your own material and perform your own material, then nobody can really expose it because if you keep your secrets close to yourself, then nobody can really expose you.

No one can come and claim ownership of my work. I am the creator of it, and it lives within me.

I never did, and I never will, thank any man for altering any one word of my compositions without my privity.

I love 'Jack' as one of my creations and would never want to change it from what it was supposed to be. There was no reason to reinvent.

One of the things that Dumbledore is always trying to do is to empower the kids to take ownership of issues and be creative and involved. That's what we see today. We need to empower America to be a creator of its solutions going forward in a new, very confusing world.

We spent a couple of years trying to be what we thought people wanted us to be, what the press thought we should be, doing what the company wanted. Finally we just said 'Sod it. This is what we do best. We're best at making pop records that people enjoy and having fun and entertaining them.'

As an actor you can always blame the director or writer for negative feedback. But as a writer, you're the reason why everyone's in the room.