Noah Hawley Quotes

I'm really trying hard not to do anything that has been done before. So knowing everything I can about the legacy of magic challenges my team and I to invent new illusions.

I think with Blair Witch and The Sixth Sense, people are much more open to something that is different.

He lives with his creativity in high gear.

Brian Eno developed systems to keep himself on edge and to keep himself in a position where he's generating ideas.

When I go into making a movie, personally, I don't try to bring other pieces of movies with me.

For me, what is most important is the element of surprise. If I can surprise you with every film of mine, that is exactly what I am trying to do.

I mean, I don't know anything else that I would try to do, but it's a very frustrating thing to do, because you are trying to take what's a fantasy in your head and make it live through the minds of 200 people.

Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.

It's very important to understand that we never do the same thing twice; each of our projects is unique. We'll never do another 'Gates.' Each project is a unique image. We do not know in advance how the work will look. I do preparatory drawings, but they are only projections of our vision.

When you make new musicals, you have the great freedom and the great burden that it can be changed.

If the novelist isn't surprised by where his book ends up, he or she probably hasn't written anything worth remembering.

Theater is about surprises and things that you haven't seen before on stage.

Our responsibility as filmmakers is to make things that are fresh, unique and original.

The great fun of doing new plays is that people have no idea what's going to happen next. That goes quite soon, as people start talking about it, and the only way you can keep hold of that is genuinely to keep changing it.

We're not ever interested in repeating ourselves or doing what people expect us to do, it's such a turn off.

I've worked with people who wanted to be creative every day: it was like a goal to arrive with something very special. Sometimes it's just disturbing, because special is good when it's needed. But when it's not needed, it's confusing, and you go away from the authenticity by a strong desire to be unique and singular.

One of the biggest turnoffs is being presented with an idea that's already, to a degree, complete. That's not an adventure, and it's not a learning experience. It's more of a chore. Then you become a technician with taste, as opposed to an explorer and an author.

I say to my pupils, 'You can pitch me any thing you've got, but tell me why you're the only person who can write it in the world. Keep digging.'

I always imagine, and try to be on the lookout, for new things, for references that can inspire me creatively so I can showcase things that people haven't done before or that are new.

I want to surprise people with my work every time.

I always try that my next film is different than my last movie. I would like to surprise my audience; that, I think, is the job of an actor.

There is no point in playing safe, because the audiences love different quirks: something that is crazy and out-of-the-box. I think that's what my space is, and if you are going to have your own space in the industry, this is where I want to be.

I made a promise to myself that I would try to introduce something unexpected in every single episode of the series. It was largely to amuse myself as much as anything. I didn't ever want the audience to feel that they knew everything.

There is so much competition and content floating around right now, so comedy has to have a lot quirk and heart.

You never know where you're going to get inspiration.