Joss Whedon Quotes

One of those things that I like about TV is that if you get a group of people you like, you can work with these people for months at a time, and you can discover their strengths and weaknesses, and you can use those in the direction where you take the characters.

Writing can be really lonely, and I find that bit difficult. I'd rather be around my people, getting ideas.

It is tough when you're by yourself, and I think that's why team sport is so appealing.

The thing about the 'Melrose' novels is that I have to feel they're impossible when I set out.

Once a novel gets going and I know it is viable, I don't then worry about plot or themes. These things will come in almost automatically because the characters are now pulling the story.

As an only child, I may have been alone a lot, but I was never lonely. My invisible friends were my constant companions.

For me, emotion comes first. If I have to change a scene, invent a scene, change dialogue, or put Graff by the lake in order to feel that dynamic, and the end results feels like 'Ender's Game,' then hopefully it works.

What I like is the idea of a group, even if it's just two people - the idea of solitude within a group.

I don't mind being an only child; never have. I am lucky, though, that I have my friend Emily, who grew-up very close to me and so, there is someone I have shared memories with. I would miss that if I didn't have it, I think.

Acting is contained - you act for three months, then leave it - but writing is the act of creation. Writing is dangerous.

Well, I must tell you I write the scripts very close to the bone. So I'm writing episode seven now and couldn't tell you what happens in episode eight.

I can't really write anything without knowing the ending. I don't know how people do that. Even with my superhero stuff, I have to know at least where I want to take the characters and what the ending of my story with them will be. I just can't structure stories or character arcs and stuff without knowing the endpoint.

I don't really look for a script and go, 'I need to do a thriller, so I'm going to do this.' I just read scripts and look for the best possible story.

You write a story about loneliness, and you grab them all because everybody's an expert on that one.

One of the reasons I started working at 'South Park,' actually, was that I wanted to learn how to structure things and how to tell a story.

Man loves company - even if it is only that of a small burning candle.

It can certainly happen that characters in more sophisticated stories can 'take over' as they develop and change the author's original ideas. Well, it certainly happens to me at times.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

I don't spend a lot of time with anybody.

I have many good friends, but I tend to keep to myself anyway. It's odd, doing things and having no one to share them with.

One major challenge within happiness is loneliness. The more I've learned about happiness, the more I've come to believe that loneliness is a terrible, common, and important obstacle to consider.

When I started thinking seriously about learning the rules of narrative, I thought, 'You've learned the rules of dancing from the ballet; what's the matter with learning the laws of theater from the people who know how to do it?'

In the end, drama is successful if you care about the people.

Although a novel takes place in the larger world, there's always some drive in it that is entirely personal - even if you don't know it while you're doing it.

Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that.