Noah Hawley Quotes

I always try to make my characters people, and yet I always want to entertain.

My job isn't to preach to people, it's to entertain them. I like letting the characters speak for themselves.

Pixar is not about computers, it's about people.

Listen, acting is not surgery, it's entertainment. You're doing something to hopefully move people, to make them laugh, to transport them. But actors are vulnerable, and the reason we're vulnerable is that we're always trying to recreate human behaviour.

It all comes down to what is best for those particular genres, and if you believe in the stories that you're telling and the characters that you like that you want to tell those stories with, you can pretty much apply it to any genre.

I don't really make movies with an intention other than asking myself, 'Do I love the character, and do I love the story?'

I'm out there to produce the best content - The most creative content I can do and express myself through wrestling.

I don't really think about film or television or going directly to the internet. I just think about doing something that people are going to get excited about.

I enjoy both TV writing and novel writing, and they are very similar. The goal is to entertain and amuse the audience, and I subscribe to this P.G. Wodehouse piece of advice: "Try to give pleasure with every sentence."

As an actor, you never really set out to be a stand-out character. You just want to do justice to the story and enjoy playing it, and find all the different nooks and crannies of who someone is. For each part that you get, they're all special and you just try to give everything you can to each one. I don't know whether they're going to be stand out in that way or not factors into my work. They all stand out for me.

This is one of the ways fiction is more liberating than nonfiction - I don't have to be so concerned with fact. I had the paradigm of certain people in my head who became my characters, but I never considered these people to be from a "certain sector of society," unless we agree that we're all from certain sectors of society.

I think ultimately that's why the audience will tune in longterm, for the characters and the relationships.

Narrative and characters have always interested me. I never tried to alienate an audience. Of course, gradually, I wanted a bigger and bigger space to draw people in, so it's very organic [growth].

You don't have to underestimate your audience anymore. They'd actually like to laugh a little bit. So, the character came to me and once it's got its grips in you, there's nowhere to go.

Television series always have a lot of characters because you want people to identify with someone on the show, who will be your eyes.

I try to keep my characters raising more questions than giving answers. I don't want to leave too much on the table. I want you to have your connection and your secret understanding of the character.

Until a character becomes a personality it cannot be believed. Without personality, the character may do funny or interesting things, but unless people are able to identify themselves with the character, its actions will seem unreal. And without personality, a story cannot ring true to the audience.

You're trying to bring a character to an audience, and tell stories. That's what we're all trying do.

The thing I always guard against when I'm talking to people I'm working with about a script is that there's a thing I don't like and it's called "talk story." It's when you're talking about the story; the characters are tasked with talking about the story instead of allowing the audience to experience the story.

Well, I think “likability” is an overused word. I don’t watch people 'cause I like them; I watch them because they’re compelling. Sympathetic is a little different... Likable just thins you out. Working to make a character likable is what kills most TV shows.

In a film, if you can capture what's going on underneath, you can begin to make a connection between the character and the people watching it.

In WWE there's a huge degree of acting you need to have to become legendary, to become popular. You have to become a great actor in WWE and that's something I've honed from a young age. I could never be the biggest guy on the show when I first started wrestling; it was all about the giants. But I could have the biggest personality, the biggest character.

You have to take some dramatic license just to make it entertaining sometimes.

I keep getting amazing things to bring to life. There's always something to discover with 'Dr. Bailey,' something that brings her home to the audience, something that makes people say, 'I know that woman. I work with that woman.' It's incredibly flattering and I'm still finding new things with her all the time.

We all go to the theater and cinema to be inspired and moved on an emotional level, sometimes to laughter, sometimes to tears. Once I discovered that acting could have such an effect, I was sold. It has been one of the most rewarding discoveries I have ever made.