Patty Jenkins Quotes

I believe that this idea of story or myth or this thing that Joseph Campbell writes about is sort of an inter-connective spiritual force - like The Force in 'Star Wars' - where it doesn't matter where you were raised, or what your background is, there are certain elements of story that totally appeal to you.

'The 5th Wave' is sci-fi, but I tried very hard to ground the story in very human terms and in those universal themes that transcend genre. How do we define ourselves? What, exactly, does it mean to be human? What remains after everything we trust, everything we believe in and rely upon, has been stripped away?

The story of Ulysses and Agamemnon and Menelaus, of Jesus, of the Good Knight of Chaucer, lives in every one of us.

Fairytales work on two levels. On a conscious level, they are stories of true love and triumph and overcoming difficult odds and so are pleasurable to read. But they work on a deeper and symbolic level in that they play out our universal psychological dramas and hidden desires and fears.

Good action films - not crap, but good action films - are really morality plays. They deal in modern, mythic culture.

'Star Wars' is mythology. It's like Greek mythology or Shakespeare. It's the story of good versus evil over a very long span of time. The storytelling is universal and timeless.

The narrative of so many fairy tales are timeless in so many different cultures, and they have been since the dawn of man. They represent escapism, but they all feature themes that have such poignancy in a modern world.

I love how 'Game of Thrones' has resonated with so many people around the world. I feel like it has really tapped into our need to hear stories about the human condition, love, death, good, evil... For me, it really is a modern version of the old Greek theatre or cave men sitting around fires telling stories.

I got taught a lot of great lessons by superhero comics as a kid about virtue and self-sacrifice and responsibility. And those were an important part of imprinting my DNA with ethical and moral values.

I just think that good stories are stories that reflect ourselves back at us and each other.

The same myths are told in every culture, and they might swap out details, but it's still the same story. It's the same story, but with a different face.

For many decades - and this was reinforced by the broadcast networks' standards-and-practices department - bad guys on TV had to get their comeuppance, and good guys had to be brave and true and unconflicted. Those were the laws of the business.

I love exploring the characters that I play, but the reason I sign on for something isn't the details of the story but the universal message.

I wanted to be Samson or Hercules from the age of six.

Great art, the more specific you are, the more universal it becomes, and that's the thing that I loved about 'The Wire.'

I want to re-mythologize 'The Green Hornet' in a contemporary context, with an emphasis on story and character, while at the same time incorporating themes that speak to my heart.

Religions have always adopted rich symbolic languages to signify the different aspects of their respective forms of faith and mythology.

It's good sometimes to have a character that starts as one thing and ends as another, but James Bond, Hercules, these are pretty enduring stories.

I am just tired of writing about heroes that we're dragging down to our level, and I want to write about heroes that we want to be.

Any underrepresented audience loves to see themselves on TV, but what's more important is that we're writing about universal themes - good versus evil, can you change yourself? These themes resonate for everyone.

I just want to be entertained. The stories that have aged the best are the ones where the wolf eats grandma, or the woman is going to bake children in an oven, or the bear is going to eat the girl for eating the porridge. There are lessons in there, but they're deeply engrained and hidden.

Fairy tales, which teach a moral lesson, are about ourselves. Myth deals with forces greater than ourselves.

'Journey' was very much inspired by Joseph Campbell's work for 'The Hero's Journey,' but, from among his works, I like 'The Power of Myth' best.

A hero can get a positive response with a few flaws in him.

'Hamlet' is a universal story that concerns us all. These issues do not concern only Muslims, but all people equally, showing that we all share the same problems regardless of religion, nation and culture.