Lennie James Quotes

I'm very focused on 'Dexter' right now. I want to make it as good of a show as we can.

In an ideal world, I'd love to work on something that is on par with 'Lost' or better than 'Lost.'

I think it's really important to have good quality drama on TV.

I really enjoy working in television and the evolution of a character over time.

The technology is really where all of the changes have taken place, but the fundamentals of a good story being the basis of every good picture, and really the only basis still remains the rule, more so today, I think, because we've unfortunately weaned an audience from birth to kind of mindless movies.

I have been sent three or four scripts for television series, but there wasn't anything I really wanted to do. I want to tell a good story, whether it's a TV show, a movie, whatever. That's really my No. 1 criteria.

There's no difference between movies and television. None at all. Except in a lot of cases, television's much better than movies.

My approach to 'Star Trek' was, 'I know science fiction, and I know screen writing.' That was very arrogant of me, but you really need to be a little bit arrogant to think that what you have to say is good enough to justify the expense of hundreds of thousands - now millions of dollars - to make an episode of the TV show.

The way the films look will never entertain an audience alone. It has to be in the service of a good story with great characters.

I think you can achieve things in television that you can't achieve on film, and I think we managed to do a lot of that in the first season of 'Lost.'

Small events and some songs and dance do not make a film. A film needs to have a proper structure and there has to be an output which would be relevant to people who watch it.

I'll do any kind of movie, as long as it's a good version of it.

I am incapable of directing a film like 'Agneenath.' I can do only what I am good at, so I would have been the worst choice to direct it. It has aggression, action and an inherent violence in it - things I am not capable of directing in my films.

Films don't always tell a story; some films can achieve effect just by being razzle-dazzle or rock n' roll. That's part of the fare that's out there. And that's okay. For me, I place more value on a story.

You set out to tell a good story. You don't do it because there is a deep message involved because the movie is almost always bad when you do that.

Whether I'm acting or making it, at the end of the day it's telling the story; action, drama. You want the audience to feel it - the story, the action, the scene, or a particular shot. I just keep working on crafting my art, on how to make action movies.

I think there's a lot of elements that go into making a really awesome horror film and that's like putting together like a real good group of people that you love to watch them either live or die.

A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.

I've come up in the scripted world, and I have wished there were more time slots for us to tell compelling scripted stories and not fill the airwaves with a lot of fluff and tabloid entertainment.

If you get a bad script, then you start expending energy trying to make a silk purse of a sow's ear. When the script's as good as those on 'Game of Thrones,' say, I don't think there was a single occasion where any of us thought there was a bad scene.

Since I was a child, I've liked telling stories. Maybe because my father's a director, I grew up loving stories. I'm not good at spinning them at a dinner table because I do go on a bit, but I love writing them, and directing is just a way of editing the story.

Never underestimate the intelligence of the audience; make good programmes, and they will come.

Because television doesn't offer the kind of budget that a movie offers, you've got to be a little more careful where you spend the money to put the fiction in science.

One day I had an idea for a movie. Everything came after that.

A great screenplay makes everybody step up to the bar and deliver.