Cinema is not just a side show - it is something which is much deeper than that. It is a form of art which needs to be respected.
I think the short story is a very underrated art form. We know that novels deserve respect.
The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.
Ford Maddox Ford's 'The Good Soldier' is my favourite novel. I first read it in the 1950s and have read it about 20 times since. It's possibly the best-constructed book in the English language.
What we're doing on 'The West Wing' is fictional. It's not a place to learn about politics or government. Has there ever been a fundraiser on 'The West Wing?' No. So right there, you're in Disneyland.
I don't think the relationship between novels and realities are one to one. Of course novels play different roles. It's essentially just a long narrative form. What you use that long narrative form for can be very different.
I wanted to send a message to the television industry that excitement is not made of car chases.
I definitely want to write some fiction, for sure. I already have half of the next book. I already have it all mapped out. I'm ready. I'm ready to bring it to the world.
Writing a short story is a little like walking into a dark room, finding a light and turning it on. The light is the end of the story.
When you have really good writing, you're compelled by the actors who are in it, and you may think it's the actors or the design or the filmmaking of it, but then you're like, 'Well, the base is a really rich story that these guys have created.'
I'm trying to move a little more toward literary fiction while still retaining a popular feel.
The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million, ... but they are, singly, as nothing without the posted presence of the watcher.
A myth is a lie that conceals or reveals a truth. But if it reveals even a strand of history or truth, that's what gets my adrenaline going.
If the script is telling the story well, that is your inspiration, and you do not need to go somewhere else.
I don't really do themes. I might accidentally, but themes are an emergent phenomena of the writing of the book, of just trying to get a story out there.
Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.
Writing a nonfiction story is like cracking a safe. It seems impossible at the beginning, but once you're in, you're in.
I think the basic thing that happened is we have lost our story. Humans think in stories, and we try to make sense of the world by telling stories.
Academics love to make theories about a body of work, but each book consumes the writer and is the sum of his or her world.
With the 'Watchmen' comic, we attempted to tell it in an accessible way. I deliberately made the artwork very clear, deceptively so. You think you're sucking on a sweetie, but it turns out to be a sugar-coated chili.
The problem with trying to make a film good and have it work for an audience is the problem of trying to tell a story well. The shape or the color of it doesn't matter.
Everything I've ever written, I had a very distinct vision of what I wanted it to look like. But, other directors never do it that way.
If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there.
If writing a novel is a year's exile to a foreign country, writing a short story is a weekend spent somewhere exotic. They're much more like vacations, more exciting and different, and you're off.
My favorite literature to read is fairly dry history. I like the framework, and my imagination can do the rest.
