Jonathan Nolan Quotes

Television is a big roulette table on so many levels. That's all it is for actors.

There are plenty of examples of really well-executed shows you could look at and say, 'Well, clearly this show will have an audience; why wouldn't it?' And for whatever reason, it just doesn't catch on. So you never know going in.

I have very simple ambitions. If I can just not be boring, I'm ahead of the game. It's hard in television. I think you get enormous reward from the audience. Just give them something they didn't see coming, and you get enormous points.

You never know how things work and what exactly is going to grab an audience. Sometimes even the best material and the best collection of people interpreting that material just for some reason doesn't fly with people. There are a lot of TV shows or movies that maybe aren't as good as others that do work when it comes to finding an audience. It's a mystery, that whole thing. If somebody figured it out, this would be quite a great industry.

I think that the best television now is giving you a three-act experience.

If there's any business that instructs you in the strong hand of fate, it's show business. You can plan and plan, but it's what happens to you that really determines what your career will be like.

You never know whether the subject matter will click with the audience at that particular time. I wish there was a formula, you know, 'That plus that equals success.'

I know the way WWE works. Things change last minute.

With TV, you film something and have to wait six months to scrawl through Twitter to see what people think.

I love TV and I think it would be cool to be a host one day.

There is no assurity that something will be a success because it is a remake or because it does/does not have a superstar.

I never considered game show host as a career, but it's fun because I get to inject some of my comedy into it.

'Profit' in my mind is as good as television gets, and if that didn't make it, all bets are off on really predicting what's going to work and what's not.

I stopped getting films. So I had to move to television. I kept myself alive with stage shows.

I watch 'Electronic Boy' faithfully every week - not because I like the show but because I'm interested in where the smartest T.V. producers and directors are going, what direction they are headed in.

You never know what clicks at the box office. It's very unpredictable.

I was pretty happy with what we were able to do on 'SmackDown.' It was one of the best, most fun runs of my career because it was essentially a new show.

Every single television product has the ambition to chase ratings, every one of them. Many have other ambitions, for many, ratings are not #1. But my experience on TV, and on the entertainment side, has been entirely ratings-based. When I look at TV I look at ratings. And I never second guess ratings. Never.

My big dream is to be a late-night host, but it's like, what does that even mean?

At network television you could make a show like Freaks and Geeks, and even though 7 million people watch is every week, you were considered a terrible failure, and they got rid of you and staff. Now ... It's like a world where the replacements are the biggest fans in the world. It's, the Elvis Costellos of television are the winners. Creativity is king and it's very very exciting.

I don't really think about film or television or going directly to the internet. I just think about doing something that people are going to get excited about.

A successful current affairs television show seems to be more and more a cross between a music hall turn and a scene in a torture chamber.

Nobody knows a hit before it's a hit.

There are so many wonderful shows that come out through the year. What makes some stick is an unknown factor, you know? It's gotta be the right show at the right time. Really, you've got to have magic elements line up. But I felt that this was going to be something that was really going to ring true to people.

Success begets more in television.