Jenji Kohan Quotes

I don't really think about film or television or going directly to the internet. I just think about doing something that people are going to get excited about.

There's a great appetite for smart television. Every day I get up and there are interesting stories I want to do.

I just want to keep people entertained.

I'm motivated by entertaining people.

I do feel it's important to entertain people. I try to.

Be it films or shows or plays, it's the content that matters the most.

You don't have to underestimate your audience anymore. They'd actually like to laugh a little bit. So, the character came to me and once it's got its grips in you, there's nowhere to go.

I think people get too comfortable, in just doing what they do every week. And I'm all about challenge and change, and I like to read the audience.

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.

Whether you do stand-up comedy or write a story, you have a duty to deliver. As a comedian, you walk out on stage, and you have a minute to hook them, or they'll start booing. As a writer, it's very similar. A reader doesn't have time to say, 'I'll give him 50 pages, as it's not very good yet, but I hope it'll get better.'

As a storyteller, when you're writing a movie and when you're directing, you want to keep people entertained. That's the whole point, right? It has to be entertaining.

I think stories get better the more people try to amuse themselves.

I don't want there to be a typical episode of 'The Walking Dead.' I want to try to give people different things every week because that's what I dig.

I love video games. I'm also slightly in awe of them. I'm in awe of their power in terms of imagination, in terms of technology, in terms of concept. But I think, above all, I'm in awe at their power to motivate, to compel us, to transfix us, like really nothing else we've ever invented has quite done before.

I think it is important to grow. Your fans are growing up with you whether you like it or not. You have to keep it fresh and exciting for them. You have to bring something new to the table each time.

In the writing of memoirs, as in the production of shows, too much caution causes the audience to nod and think of other channels.

For me, what is most important is the element of surprise. If I can surprise you with every film of mine, that is exactly what I am trying to do.

Novelists want to be published and need a publisher to decide to print 20,000 copies. So you need to entertain on some level. I want to reach out and connect.

In my opinion, there's nothing new in the theatre, ever. Theatre-makers are thieves, in the honourable tradition of charlatans. They fake it very, very well indeed for the entertainment of everybody else.

I want to entertain people, but with some substance.

You have to keep surprising your audience.

I've always had an idealistic streak about storytelling in that I believe we owe more to audiences than repeatedly bludgeoning them over the head while stealing their lunch money. We owe them inspiration. That's why I'm more interested now in creating new heroes than hooking up jumper cables to old ones.

Entertainment and information work well together.

A good story is a good story, whatever the medium.

When I write the set, I try to create something that will not only be interesting for the audience, but will have a flow for the band, too, so we don't get boring.