Brandon Sanderson Quotes

When the reader and one narrator know something the other narrator does not, the opportunities for suspense and plot development and the shifting of reader sympathies get really interesting.

Well, here's what I'll say: The storytellers of 'Lost' have taken us on a pretty great journey, and there have been questions along the way, and criticisms along the way, but if you look at the totality of the show, or the experience of it as a whole, I think as long as you look at it from that perspective you'll be happy.

The writer is both a sadist and a masochist. We create people we love, and then we torture them. The more we love them, and the more cleverly we torture them along the lines of their greatest vulnerability and fear, the better the story. Sometimes we try to protect them from getting booboos that are too big. Don’t. This is your protagonist, not your kid.

As a viewer, I really want to watch author-backed stories, and there is something amazing about thrillers, the way it captivates your imagination.

A lot of shows, things will just simmer and simmer and maybe never explode into the open, or only risk exploding into the open when it's clear that the series has gotten to its endgame. So I'm always impressed - but not surprised - when 'Scandal' just completely goes for it.

Alison Carr on 'Homeland.' She was such great character to play, so clever and full of surprises. I was sad to see her go.

We figured the audience would want good stories, great art, wonderful characters, people you could fall in love with that we would immediately put through hell.

When you're initially a heel, it's easier to be a heel. I'd rather people hate me than try to get them to love me.

I think television is about the characters you want to see again, and so you want to invite these people into your home. And certainly, seeing them get into bad situations and then watching them have to get themselves out, that's always super satisfying.

I think the best fiction is a form of psychological suspense, even though I don't really write in that idiom.

I suppose I do have an interest in stories that show complexity.

You have to think about storytelling over the long haul: what is going to engage an audience for, potentially, years and how characters can become deeply involving for an audience.

People love storylines. They love them because at some point, the talent will get people emotionally invested.

Sometimes you have to set the angle within the match, but you gotta give a reason for one guy to be loved and one guy to be hated.

For me, the best moments in storytelling are the ones where I feel I'm discovering something.

In film, there's always this looking for the 'If you lay down and burst into tears, you did a good job.'

When you have 12 hours of storytelling, the cool thing about it is that you get to really leave people with question marks, but hopefully wanting to come back.

I want to write books that keep people up at night, where they cry through the first forty pages and keep reading anyway.

While problems in a film are fairly easy to identify, the sources of those problems are often extraordinarily difficult to assess. A mystifying plot twist or a less-than-credible change of heart in our main character is often caused by subtle underlying issues elsewhere in the story.

Every play is rhythmic control. If you want an audience to go on a journey, it's rhythmic control. You're crafting when they lean in, when they push back, when they breathe, when they surrender.

I think it's touching that the fans feel so close to the characters that they feel personally hurt. I've felt that way in plenty of TV shows - 'Game of Thrones,' 'Mad Men.' How could they do that to that character? That's drama.

My goal is to always try to make you feel something, whether that's humor or sadness or excitement, and to try to manipulate screen space.

'Lost' is such a thematic show that I'm always afraid that if I know something's going to happen at the end, I'll subconsciously write something in where someone who's astute will go, 'Oh, he used so-and-so's theme: that must mean so-and-so is coming back!'

My favorite film is 'The Empire Strikes Back.' My writing, and my personal taste in movies and books, tends toward works with a darker tone, and 'Empire' fits that the best of all the movies.

After all, no one is ever taken in by the happy ending, but we are often divinely fuddled by the tragic curtain.