Naseeruddin Shah Quotes

Television's so quick, and there's so many other fun elements to it, but you don't get such good scripts and the time to really make much more three dimensional characters.

I knew, the second I read 'Humans,' that no matter how successful the show was, the script was superb and like nothing else I'd ever seen.

If it's a drama or comedy, it doesn't matter to me. I just want to like the writing.

Great writing makes great television.

Nowadays, kids know how a programme like Merlin is made and how it works. But the show just seems to grow in popularity the more it goes on.

I don't usually watch a lot of TV, but 'Mad Men' changed my perspective. I admire Matthew Weiner who came up with the idea and wrote such a great TV series, and the broadcasting company for being bold enough to air such a series.

The technology is really where all of the changes have taken place, but the fundamentals of a good story being the basis of every good picture, and really the only basis still remains the rule, more so today, I think, because we've unfortunately weaned an audience from birth to kind of mindless movies.

When we leave the play saying how spectacular the sets or costumes were, or how interesting the ideas, it means we had a bad time.

You set out to tell a good story. You don't do it because there is a deep message involved because the movie is almost always bad when you do that.

You can be far more challenging, articulate and intelligent writing for television than you can writing for the cinema.

It's fun to improvise, but I still think it's better to have a great script, you know, like a Charlie Kaufman script.

Fortunately, our audiences are used to a kind of boredom in the theatre, and if the writer is skillful, he will flatter them into thinking: 'Why, that's us up there, and aren't we - for all our little foibles - pretty nice guys and gals?'

I am not interested in entertaining people. I think being an actor provides an opportunity to give people an experience they can connect to, reflect on, learn from, laugh at.

I think if you're writing a play, it should be its own end game; you'll never get to do a good one unless you know it's not a blueprint for a film; you're not going to get the action right and the story right.

Sylvester has a great popular sense, as good as any writer I've ever worked with. He knows what audiences want to see, and what they don't want to see.

When you write a script, you always think about what your heart is asking.

Lizzy Weiss is such a great writer, and she really writes for the performances.

TV is where a writer can write his novel.

The greatest gift that an actor can have is good scripts because then you're relieved of the responsibility of trying to elevate the material.

I've never been on a TV show for more than a season and you have to continually keep it interesting and you have to keep it connected, even as you change.

There are a lot of good stories out there, but I haven't found too many great scripts.

You could say that Iron Man was a second-tier character, and it turned out very successfully. I simply think it's down to the movie itself, and whether people enjoy the movie, are involved in the movie, and that it entertains them. From that point of view, the movie has to stand alone.

If people need to be informed by lines, then there's no reason why the actor is saying the line except for information for the audience; I think there's something wrong.

When I sit down to write, I don't think, 'OK, what is the next David O. Russell film I can write, or what is Harvey Weinstein going to want to buy?' Or even, 'What are filmgoers going to want.' I try to think, tell a good story. Just do what you do.

My preference is for good writing. It doesn't matter if it's for film or TV. Whatever. It starts with the writing. Even though I've had problems with writers, it doesn't matter how great of an actor you are. If the writing is bad, you're going to struggle.