James Wan Quotes

In the end, my reasons for moving down the timeline and introducing a new cast have more to do with keeping myself entertained, on the assumption that if I get bored, my readers are going to be even more bored.

What writer wants to make compromises with story? Story is the only reason you're in it.

What is nice about doing a long-running show is finding a language that gives it some depth.

I just read the script; everything else just follows. Content is the most important thing for me.

This is the story, this is your character, I have the sense of the landscape, I have the sense of the scene, I have all that stuff. But I'm also looking for something else to happen, an accident or something. You're focused on the story you intend to tell and then you have to have a peripheral net out to catch these accidents.

I went to a seminar early in my career on the craft of storytelling by Robert McKee. It was really life altering. There are basic principles on how to craft an engaging story and he covers them well. He's got a book out, 'Story,' that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in improve their storytelling.

I want to tell a story and shape it all the way through to the end.

It's really about, oh come on, this guy wouldn't say that or he wouldn't do that, you know, it's about the characters, about the story, about the situation.

When I sit down to write, I don't think, 'OK, what is the next David O. Russell film I can write, or what is Harvey Weinstein going to want to buy?' Or even, 'What are filmgoers going to want.' I try to think, tell a good story. Just do what you do.

Although when I start a novel I know how it will begin and end, I like to let the people within the story take me on a journey between those points without having a fixed plan.

In any genre you're working in, you can always find a way to tell a particular kind of story. I love fantasy; I love science fiction. I love all kinds of fiction, in fact.

It can certainly happen that characters in more sophisticated stories can 'take over' as they develop and change the author's original ideas. Well, it certainly happens to me at times.

If the character is true, the movie will fall into place. Or at least that's what you hope.

I would not have so many scripts being driven by demographics. The play's the thing - not the 18-35 year old male age group.

I'm interested in character and dialogue and exchange of ideas.

I'm very good at plot.

If you don't spend the time you need on developing characters and finding stories, complicated stories, the audience gets tired because they think they're seeing the same thing again and again.

You don't go around thinking about how characters in a movie, in the stories you make up, relate to people in general.

Whether it's 'The West Wing' or anything else, my first thought is always, 'What's a good story?'

I'm always excited about stories that allow me to explore a character and create interesting stories and worlds that we haven't seen before.

I think finite series gives you more time to write down your journey in any show. When it's a finite series, you know the start and know your end. The writers and actors know what is going to happen, so the interest is not lost.

Every story is organic, and every story finds its own ending.

But if you don't understand that story is character and not just idea, you will not be able to breathe life into even the most intriguing flash of inspiration.

There are a lot of good stories out there, but I haven't found too many great scripts.

I would, however, start writing fiction about 10 years before I actually did, because it's such great fun to do, many times more creative than nonfiction.