Scott Cohen Quotes

The story [for the western genre] is everything. Whether it's a book or a screenplay, the story drives everything. And if you just go out and try to make one by putting on boots and jumping on a horse and riding off... If you don't have the material, the characters and the things to overcome and conflicts that give life to drama, you don't have it.

Whether you're writing a horror show or a James Bond film, I think what bubbles beneath is interesting characterization. The colors that emerge through storytelling is what a dramatist does. There's always got to be something bubbling underneath that will erupt at some point.

Conflict is the place where character and plot intersect.

You can't tell a good story without conflict - the story can't be beautiful or meaningful. We're taught to run from conflict, and it's robbing us of some really good stories.

Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.

At the heart of drama is conflict.

Tension is the cornerstone of any good story.

I think that internal conflict works very well, because, after all, all the best drama is fuelled by conflict.

With thrillers, I tend to concentrate on the research and pace more than the characters.

A compelling story requires conflict, friction, an obstacle to be overcome.

For me, all drama is based on conflict.

Good drama must be drastic.

Here's what happens in a play. You get involved in a situation where something is unbalanced. If nothing's unbalanced, there's no reason to have a play. If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad's not dead and asks him if he's had a good time, it's boring. But if something's unbalanced, it must be returned to order.

The roles I'm interested in or have been interested in, you know, it's going to get down to conflict. Drama is conflict - conflict of interests.

I really think if you take away a character's obstacles then there's no comedy.

Conflict drives fiction; no one wants to read a four-hundred-page novel in which everything rolls along smoothly.

I like people to be surprised by the turn of events. I don't want things just to be pat and formulaic. If there's some sort of internal combustion in the character or a desire to change the way things are going, that makes for conflict, which is the essence of drama.

Character development is conflict.

If you know exactly what your character knows, it's a drama.

I love the conflict of relationships on 'Justified.'

The best fiction is geared towards conflict. We learn most about our characters through tension, when they are put up against insurmountable obstacles. This is true in real life.

Drama is action, sir, action and not confounded philosophy.

If you have a beautiful story, it has to have conflict. If you don't have conflict, it can't be a good story.

I'll tell you the secret. When you begin with a character, you want to begin by creating a villain.

In each scene, the writer sets up a situation, which brings a conflict as well as either a small victory or a loss at the close of that particular scene.