A story is told as much by silence as by speech.
The secret story is the one we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under control and the stuff we overlook doesn't matter.
Tell me a story. In this century, and moment, of mania, Tell me a story. Make it a story of great distances, and starlight. The name of the story will be Time, But you must not pronounce its name. Tell me a story of deep delight.
An untold story has a weight that can submerge you, sure as a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean.
Every great narrative is at least two narratives, if not more - the thing that is on the surface and then the things underneath which are invisible.
By not speaking you don't get rid of the story, you just open up a silence, which can be just as loud.
I like photographs which leave something to the imagination.
When people ask what 'American Pie' is about, they're missing the point. The song isn't about the lines themselves - it's about what is between the lines. The song is about what isn't there.
But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it.
Don't tell readers what to think. Let the action speak for itself.
If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the reader!
A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.
And it's interesting, but I'm always interested in the story behind the story.
The script will point you in certain directions and I go the opposite if I can. I try do do one thing and tell a different story with my eyes. I believe what's more interesting is always what's not being said.
My book has a lot of parts of my life that people don't know about.
The silence was part of the story I wanted to tell.
Behind the story I tell is the one I don't...Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear.
They look so expectant, and then they look so depressed... that was the other great lesson that The Royal Hunt of the Sun taught me, it was the profundity that masked drama can achieve, that of course, the audience were not seeing masks moving at all.
