Classic Storytelling Quotes

There's a wealth of literature out there which, hopefully, will be, you know, exploded in the future, and I personally find it very rewarding to be involved with classic storytelling, and sort of legendary characters.

Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.

I don't know if there are too many other trilogies with stories that have continued to captivate audiences like 'Back to the Future' has.

I think of myself as a meat-and-potatoes kind of director.

Probably 90 percent of the stuff I make has inevitably been done before... Whether it's playing Hamlet, which has been on the go for 400 years, or pieces from the cinematic world that also have been essayed before, I feel released by that.

When you're writing a book, you don't want it to be overly trendy because you want people to enjoy it for years and refer back to it.

A lot of the films I've made probably could have worked just as well 50 years ago, and that's just because I have a lot of old-fashion values.

Am I nostalgic for film? … I mean, it’s had a good run, hasn’t it? You know, I’m not nostalgic for a technology. I’m nostalgic for the kind of films that used to be made that aren’t being made now.

The great European novel started out as entertainment, and every true novelist is nostalgic for it. In fact, the themes of those great entertainments are terribly serious-think of Cervantes!

Following a pre-cellphone world of children on an adventure is incredibly appealing for me. These are the kinds of movies I fell in love with and made me want to be a filmmaker in the first place.

And I thought, when I have kids, that's the sort of well told, silly, and fun fairy tale that I would want to take them to. But it was an amazing experience. And I think Shrek is a real classic, a fairy tale classic.

The reason I think we hold films like 'The Sixth Sense' and 'Citizen Kane' in such high regard is those are movies that were amplified by their twists but were already bringing the goods.

The definition of horror is pretty broad. What causes us "horror" is actually a many splendored thing (laughs). It can be hard to make horror accessible, and that's what I think Silence of the Lambs did so brilliantly - it was an accessible horror story, the villain was a monster, and the protagonist was pure of heart and upstanding so it had all of these great iconographic elements of classic storytelling. It was perceived less as a horror movie than an effective thriller, but make no mistake, it was a horror movie and was sort of sneaky that way.

The strength of 'Peep Show' has always been that that it's quite traditional, but it's obviously presented in a very new way.

When you do a good film, it will remain forever.

To be honest with you, I've been dying to do a nice indie feature - just something about a regular guy with a big quirk or a big emotional problem. Just something that's a straightforward, classic indie film. It sounds weird, but it's been easier for me to get cast in big tentpole films than the indie community. I'd love to do that.

There's this long tradition of... even 'Where The Wild Things Are,' which many people consider the best kids' picture book of all time. It was considered revolutionary, and some libraries wouldn't carry it. But it's a classic because it taps into empowerment for kids, kids facing dangers and winning.

I want to be in movies that stand the test of time.

I saw 'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs' when it came out, didn't like it too much. I found she was stupid.

The redemption plot is one of the oldest story shapes.

I want to shift my career back to shows like The Knick. I prefer the classic drama structure.

There's a lot of mythological stories you can tell. There's not just one. I appreciate all of those different kinds, but what I was personally missing was grand, classic, true-north hero. Pure and simple emotion, and also aiming for big time emotion, like love story as well, in a very sincere way. Like 'Superman: The Movie' had done for me.

The films that I love are very straightforward stories, like really old-fashioned stuff.

All of the movies that last, that you return to, the movies that struck you as a kid and continue to open up to you 10 years later and 10 years after that - those are the movies I want to make. Those things are eternal.

I want to make timeless movies.