Peter Morgan Quotes

I think I've become a better storyteller over the years.

To find a good script is very important, because the chances and opportunities I would be getting will be very far and few.

It's hard to find scripts that know what they are from page one to page 115.

We start with strong characters and build the movie from there. That not to say we don't struggle with story - that's the most challenging part.

The most challenging and exciting aspect is the outline and formation of the plot points. This is the stage where the notion of the story begins to take shape, and I can see glimpses of what is to come.

I've always found the script to be more of a skeleton, the template.

Dhanam' is one of the interesting scripts that I came across. It centers around me.

I tend not to know what the plot is or the story is or even the theme. Those things come later, for me.

Theme is great for people who like to approach stories that way, but it's an organizing principle that helps us write a story that has some weight; it's not something that all readers have to care about.

I think the main thing to remember when writing a novel is to stay true to the characters.

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.

Good scripts and interesting stories are hard enough to find.

I don't really set out to explore grand themes. I set out to tell a story. And one I have to be able to imagine right through.

Once you come up with a premise, you have to work out how it all happened. It's a bit like coming up with a spectacular roof design first. Before you can get it up there, you need to build a solid foundation and supporting structure.

I didn't plan to write YA - I had a story that simply wasn't working as a straight-up fantasy novel.

When I really have to push and grope and scratch and claw to make a story work, that's a telltale sign that maybe something conceptually isn't right.

I have a number of writers I work with regularly. I write an outline for a book. The outlines are very specific about what each scene is supposed to accomplish.

On the one occasion where I did try writing a screenplay, I found the rewriting just unendurable.

Ensure that your script is watertight. If it's not on the page, it will never magically appear on the screen.

Writing sketches, you're also learning about a journey and characters, and you translate that to bigger things.

Somebody wrote a script around us, but Dustin Abraham came with the best one.

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

Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it is drawing from all the moments of your life.

My outlines can be 10-20 pages in length and focus primarily on the physical active plot over the emotional plot.

Normally I start with a plot, and write a synopsis, and the ideas come from the construction.