Bryan Lee O'Malley Quotes

That's the difference between even the best video game and what's going on in books. Video games can inspire a reaction, but not the emotions.

I think the last thing you want to do as a writer, as a storyteller, is to create indifference. I don't necessarily go out of my way to provoke, but I would much rather have a song that triggers a whole myriad of reactions than a song that inspires a shrug of the shoulder.

I want people to laugh and cry, not just sit and stare at the TV.

Sometimes, when you watch people play a video game, they seem lost in this wormhole, or in a trance.

There's a sense of fiction in every video game. It creates a world for itself that you want to obey.

I am a very active audience member. I want to be moved. I want to be confronted. I want to feel.

Some people are shocked when a game evokes real-world issues. But this platform is about becoming the characters, not just seeing them from the outside, like in a film.

In a movie, you're just passive; you're just watching a story that is told to you. But in games, I saw that you could be the main protagonist: you could be in the shoes of the hero and make the decisions.

You want people to think. You want people to be emotionally moved. And there's a theory behind that in terms of storytelling. It has been around for thousands of years. And that's where something like live theater or a live performance is something that is very valuable because you get instant feedback from your audience and you kind of know the things that work and the things that don't work.

I want to earn a reader's capacity to be moved.

I really just wanted to work on adventure games, so Pinkerton Road is our own little indie studio that's focused on that.

As you follow the escapades or the journey of the hero through a story, it evokes some kind of emotion in the viewers. The director's job is to make sure that the audience goes through the journey and has an emotional reaction.

I just want people to get lost in the story and at the end kind of sag and say, 'That was fun.' It's hardly my desire for them to sit and think, 'What a great literary image.'

I had always been intrigued by the emotional aspect of adventure gaming-the fact that people get so personally involved.

Anytime anyone gets passionate over a character you're playing, I think you've done your job well.

I don't think you can cry if the script is rubbish. I have to feel it; it's as simple as that. It's just like if you're watching something moving, and you feel yourself welling up. It's the same thing. You're just being carried along with the story. There's nothing magical about it. I think I'm in touch with my emotions, and I can't help it.

A lot of people say video games can be stifling. Older people say, 'We had to go outside, and we had to make up stories!' For me, video games broadened my horizons. Playing 'Golden Axe,' I was those characters. I imagined myself being in that world, so honestly, it was a really good thing.

If I'm not moved from one spot to another, internally, while I'm witnessing it, reading it, consuming it, whatever, I don't know why we're being asked to the party.

When people come into the theater, whether it's the screen or the stage, they've gotta be transported and transformed.

I liked playing video games because I felt like I was inside of the story in a way that I didn't feel when I was just watching something. Any chance I could get to step into the shoes of another person, I would take. I couldn't get enough of stories.

I love characters who can rile an audience so much - it means you've done your job well.

We have a whole industry which is gigantic: games. Games is very successful. It's its own art form, though, and it's not the same as a linear narrative.

My writing could be the most beautiful or important piece of prose, but it means nothing if it's boring, if people aren't listening or reading. I think transporting someone, putting them in a story for a few hours, taking them out of their worlds, is what I always strive to do.

The experience you're going to take the audience on is as important as the story you're trying to tell. And that experience needs to excite me so much that I am desperate to share it.

What I always do is go with the stories that put up the hair on the back of my neck or make me cry or make me laugh.