Rob Walton Quotes

Where radio is different than fiction is that even mediocre fiction needs purpose, a driving question.

This is the story, this is your character, I have the sense of the landscape, I have the sense of the scene, I have all that stuff. But I'm also looking for something else to happen, an accident or something. You're focused on the story you intend to tell and then you have to have a peripheral net out to catch these accidents.

My job as an author is to tell the story in the best way possible, to make it flow seamlessly and get the reader to keep turning the page.

I would never make up a character who didn't exist or an event that didn't transpire. If you're a real writer, you have other tools in your toolbox to build drama.

I came up with a story and I wrote it.

There was a time when I read a script and I just got excited about the possibilities.

As fiction writers, we are entertainers.

When writing, I'm not thinking about war, even if I'm writing about it. I'm thinking about sentences, rhythm and story. So the focus, when I'm working, even if it's on a story that takes place at war, is not on bombs or bullets. It's on the story.

There's a story everywhere. Being bored to death someplace is basically a funny proposition. What you have to watch out for is you don't write a boring story about a boring place.

Especially when I write, I want to get out of people's heads and have them speak and have them get dressed and have them go to work.

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

I would, however, start writing fiction about 10 years before I actually did, because it's such great fun to do, many times more creative than nonfiction.

I wrote a novel. It's called 'The Middlesteins.' It's fiction. It's not a memoir. I'm not a spokesperson.

If the script is telling the story well, that is your inspiration, and you do not need to go somewhere else.

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. Your job No. 1 is for it to be entertaining, and if it's inspiring, that is great, too.

I just want to be a good storyteller.

Whether it's 'The West Wing' or anything else, my first thought is always, 'What's a good story?'

A good story needs equally good talent to foster it.

My story is very long. And for somebody to write a good story, one needs a good writer, too.

To me, a good storyteller should be able to tell stories across genres.

The dynamics of storytelling are very important. To just be serious and morose all the time would be not very enjoyable.

I just read the script; everything else just follows. Content is the most important thing for me.

I think I'm good at metaphors and descriptions. Plot doesn't come naturally to me, so I work really hard at it.

I sort of love reading the scripts and going, 'Oh wow, what a great idea. I never would have thought of that.'

My fictitious characters will take the bit between their teeth and gallop off and do something that I hadn't counted on. However, I always insist on dragging them back to the straight and narrow.