David Macinnis Gill Quotes

In order to have a plot, you have to have a conflict, something bad has to happen.

A compelling story requires conflict, friction, an obstacle to be overcome.

I'd rather watch a character be good at something and be challenged - there's more to play in that.

Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.

The villain drives the plot.

I'm first and foremost interested in the story, the characters.

The beginning of a plot is the prompting of desire.

Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.

Every story I write starts with a dilemma or a theme. Once I am convinced that this is the issue that is perturbing my thoughts, I start to look for characters capable of representing it.

I sort of latch onto roles that have something to fight against.

Here's what happens in a play. You get involved in a situation where something is unbalanced. If nothing's unbalanced, there's no reason to have a play. If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad's not dead and asks him if he's had a good time, it's boring. But if something's unbalanced, it must be returned to order.

Storytelling is about two things; it's about character and plot.

The suspense of a novel is not only in the reader, but in the novelist, who is intensely curious about what will happen to the hero.

The most important aspect of any story, to me, is character.

Stories hold conflict and contrast, highs and lows, life and death, and the human struggle and all kinds of things.

Every drama requires a cast. The cast may be so huge, as in Leo Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina,' that the author or editor provides a list of characters to keep them straight. Or it may be an intimate cast of two.

Once we got over the origin story, we could really delve deeper into their lives and characters and angst. So this movie actually has more heart, more humor.

If I've got one thing that I really believe about fiction and life, it's that there are no minor characters.

I think a good story's a good story and a good character's a good character.

I love good stories; you have to have a good plot - characters which intertwine with a good plot.

The best fiction is geared towards conflict. We learn most about our characters through tension, when they are put up against insurmountable obstacles. This is true in real life.

A story is built on characters and reasons.

I'll tell you the secret. When you begin with a character, you want to begin by creating a villain.

Tension is the cornerstone of any good story.

The rules I go by are: Always keep your villains bad, and keep the plot grounded and real. If you keep those stakes, the comedy will bounce off that and work.