Aaron Sorkin Quotes

I am fascinated by storytelling glue. Anytime I see someone who's good at it, I stop and wonder, 'How'd they 'do this? Why can't I tear myself away?

If you create a good story that has a lot of story value... I think audiences like that. It's why they stick with the same TV show over and over.

Good storytelling is harder than it sounds, but the easy part is that everyone has the ability to do it. ...Tap into it.

Fortunately, our audiences are used to a kind of boredom in the theatre, and if the writer is skillful, he will flatter them into thinking: 'Why, that's us up there, and aren't we - for all our little foibles - pretty nice guys and gals?'

I'm not a purist - I like films that are narrated and films that aren't, films that are beautiful and films that are clumsy but heartfelt. Mostly, I just like a good story and good characters.

I don't think people are ever going to a place where they're like, 'I'm over stories about character and love.'

I firmly believe that emotions are universal, and I know that when they connect with the audience, it works. There is no such thing as an entertaining or a serious film; there are good films and bad films. Good films will always find a vast audience.

As long as your storytelling and emotional depth are intact, that's what people will focus on.

People are interested if you tell stories well and relevantly.

I don't know what makes a good feature story. I've always assumed that if it was a story that interested or amused me, that it would have the same impact on other people.

Short stories do not say this happened and this happened and this happened. They are a microcosm and a magnification rather than a linear progression.

A strong theme is always running through a well-told story.

Narrative and characters have always interested me. I never tried to alienate an audience. Of course, gradually, I wanted a bigger and bigger space to draw people in, so it's very organic [growth].

Everybody can write a beginning and an ending, but to actually define that middle point where everything will go from professional to person, where everything will change, is always the hardest part, because it can very easily be too constructed, too artificial.

A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.

I think a good story, well told is a good story, well told, whether you're watching the episodes all in a row or not. However, it might be fun to take a closer look at how the previous episode ends and how that end relates to the beginning of the next episode.

Audiences are harder to please if you're just giving them effects, but they're easy to please if it's a good story.

Stories worked much the same way . . . A false note at the beginning was much more costly than one nearer the end because early errors were part of the foundation.

Each story tells me how to write it, but not the one afterwards.

Good stories flow like honey but bad stories stick in the craw [gullet]. What is a bad story? It's a story that cannot be absorbed in the first time of reading. It's a story that leaves questions unanswered.

You can't fool an audience with lots of bits and pieces. You have to lead them somewhere.

Stop trying to write sentences and start trying to write stories.

I always try to make my characters people, and yet I always want to entertain.

The trouble with telling a good story is that it invariably reminds the other fellow of a dull one.

A lot of the struggle I had with movies is I really loved moments and tones and feelings in a scene, and I loved creating those, but I never really had great stories to string them together.