Thomas H. Cook Quotes

In the best stories, people are morally complex; they are flawed. We read them because the world is flawed, and we want to see it truthfully represented. And because it can be thrilling to be shocked and upset, and even to feel, for chilling moments, what it's like to be a bad person.

I really do believe that no one is too pious to fall or too far gone to be redeemed in some way. Jaime Lannister on 'Game of Thrones' did terrible things, and now I feel so bad for him because his sister won't kiss him. Isn't that weird? Does she not love him? He lost a hand! It kills me that I care.

I enjoy played flawed men who are pushed to the limit, who make mistakes and then have to recover.

No person and no character is beyond redemption, ultimately. That's the great thing about playing a character that has kind of a dark side; there's room to explore the opposite.

I don't think anyone sets out to be the evil villain.

I love characters who are kind of haunted by their pasts, who struggle on despite their flaws, knowing that, at the end of the day, they're not going to shuffle off to those pearly gates.

Whenever I have tried to make a character bad, they end up being good in some way.

In all our pictures, we had an antagonist who becomes the good guy, and the underdog fulfills his quest.

The villain of any story is often the most compelling character.

A lot of readers want characters to behave in a responsible way, or they want to understand the characters' dilemma and act, in a way, on their behalf.

In any story, the villain is the catalyst. The hero's not a person who will bend the rules or show the cracks in his armor. He's one-dimensional intentionally, but the villain is the person who owns up to what he is and stands by it.

Well, I don't feel that I've played so many bad guys, and I'm rot really drawn to villains per se. I think a lot of people relate to some of my characters' inner struggles.

There's a story in 'Kabu Kabu' called 'Bakasi Man' where I got to explore the mind of a 'bad man.' It was fun.

The interesting part of the process is developing the character, you know, why did he become that? Why is the guy a murderer, or why is this guy a pervert, or whatever he is. So that's the fun part for me to delve into the abyss.

I love Russell Crowe's line to Oliver Reed in 'Gladiator' where he asks him, 'Are you in danger of becoming a good man?' It's one of my favorite lines ever.

If you have not been a villain at a certain point in time, you will never be a hero. And the day you are a hero, you may become a villain the next day.

I'm drawn to the classic antihero, the guy who's probably made a bunch of mistakes and really has the capacity to go either way. That's the most interesting type of character for me to watch, to see what decisions they'll make. There's a lot of gray area there for a writer to explore.

I can tell you that good people do bad things.

I think the core of Jaime Lannister is actually that final line in the pilot when he says, 'The things I do for love.' He might do horrible things - and they are truly, some of them, horrific. There's no excuses. But he does it out of what he sees as a necessity, out of love.

My favorite was 'The Secret Garden'. I loved it, and I think it's had a big influence on all of my characters. 'The Secret Garden' is about transgressions and imperfect people.

Do I want a character who just has the best motives and the best intentions, zero flaws, and is doing things for the right reasons? No!

The anti-hero walks the morally gray path and constantly flirts with redemption, and that flirtation is just a blast to write.

For me, a story always goes out of a mistake. Somebody makes a mistake, and that becomes the story. Probably that explains why my series are kind of dark: because there's a problem to begin with.

You can't play a bad person; you can only be a person who does bad things for the right reasons.

Villains with a conscience have this sad realization of who they are, and the monster they've become — there's a sense of regret. So at the end of these movies there's a dramatic resonance that really stays with the audience.