Noah Hawley Quotes

I like talking about comic book process, and one of the things is that I have plans going ahead for years, and the plans constantly get thrown away and shifted. There's a difference between planning and what actually happens in life, and comics have a life of their own.

Regardless of the medium, be it television or feature or documentary, I'm not gonna distinguish and worry about my particular canon, whatever that means.

Writing for myself and writing for another artist are two very different experiences. When I handle both the story and the art, I have full control. I can endlessly tweak every word and every line.

For an artist, a good place to be is you have some kind of influence and power to get things done, but in your essence you remain a nomad or a soldier facing a difficulty to be overcome.

I think television keeps on being a place where writers can go, and if they're successful, they can have their way, and they can have creative freedom.

For me, directing a film is like confining myself. I want to do something beyond direction. I can conceive stories, write screenplays, etc. That's better for me.

When you come to the end of a TV project, it's good to be able - and I'm kind of lucky - that I can just go into a different medium, make another album, or do whatever.

If you fail to make a mark, you might not get good work later. So, it is important for every actor to have a plan B to bank on. Here, nothing lasts forever. That's why my husband pushes me to do different things in life.

For me, I just never put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak. I know that music and acting now are things that I want to do for the rest of my life. But, if suddenly that was to stop, I'd actually be okay. It's not the be all, end all of my life. I know who I am, outside of this, and I think that's a really big thing to have.

I don't like directing that much to want a career as a director for hire. I like to have as much creative control as possible.

I have the power to write these books where I invent characters that I really like, and it gets to come out the way they want it to come out, and I get to make it happen.

My goal was, and still is, to write first, direct my own stuff whenever possible and control my own creative destiny.

The acting is something that will always be a part of my life, but the writing gives me a lot more creative freedom. You're a pawn in somebody else's chess game, whereas as a writer and as a director, you get to call the shots. And that's very thrilling.

I'm not faithful to one particular medium, and it's what I try to teach to people who work with me.

There are a lot of characters that you can get into that don't exist in the studio world.

I don't read critics, and I don't care what they say. You can't let them steal your soul. You do what the director and production is committed to doing. I just think it's terrible that critics have the power to keep people away from a good production.

I would like any type of character that I could be creative with and totally delve into.

You make a movie that is about what you want it to be about and let people have their reaction to it.

If a film is very clever and well-written, that's what gives you freedom as a director.

There's always that relief you feel when you're working on your own series that you can actually make it to your planned ending and that your audience will still be there to support you - and that your publisher will still exist.

Nothing beats novel writing because it's complete expression of you. You just control everything. Not even a movie director has that level of control.

I think one of the things that saved me is that I never put all my eggs in one basket.

We don't perceive a contradiction between writing books, making films or producing a television program. These days you can't choose how you want to express yourself anymore.

A lot of producers cookie cut movies one after another, but I'll be a little more careful, and have the opportunity to be, because I have the acting career to subsidize the producing.

I look at the people's careers who I want to emulate, like Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Bernadette Peters... They've all found the key to longevity in this business, and that is diversifying, doing as many things as possible to keep yourself relevant, and so hopefully I'm on the same track as all those amazing women.