David Brooks Quotes

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.

Surprise is key in all art.

The element of surprise is the most important thing and what keeps me interested in writing. I can feel it if I've written that predictable or boring line, and I will carry that around with me all day.

It's good to give people a jolt. If they're expecting one thing, it's important to give them something else. If you do something startling, audiences might at first freak out, but then they start to think, 'This is not going to be conventional. I'm going to enjoy this.'

It's really hard to find stuff that is original. You pick up scripts and in four pages you know where it's going and the same thing when you are sitting in a theatre, I just rejoice when something unfolds in a way that I'm not conducive.

When I go to the cinema, I'm often frustrated because I can guess exactly what is going to happen about ten minutes into the screening. So, when I'm working on a subject, I'm always looking for the element of surprise.

Good theater is not what is expected, but what surprises.

Do not expect pictures to say the expected; some of the best will have surprises for you, which will, at first, shock you.

I want people to be blown away when I do what they don't expect.

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

The challenge, really, on any new film is to try to avoid that and achieve a few moments that aren't cliche.

Every once in a while, when the audience is expecting to see one thing, you have to show them something else.

I don't want there to be a typical episode of 'The Walking Dead.' I want to try to give people different things every week because that's what I dig.

I really like it when you can step outside of what's come before and find a surprise for the reader and find a surprise for yourself.

Generally, Hollywood makes the same stories over and over. I've never wanted to do the same thing twice. If a script doesn't surprise me in some way, I simply can't commit to the project.

Most of my favourite moments in film have been when I've had an opportunity to say something from scratch, something original, whether I jotted down a few lines or it came out in improvisation.

The thing I have always tried to do is surprise people: to present them with something they didn't expect.

When I'm an audience member I do not want to go and see something that I already know, I want to see something that I don't know. I want to be surprised and stimulated to think about something. I want the magic. I want to be in a situation of uncertainty; that's what excites me.

I search for surprise in my architecture. A work of art should cause the emotion of newness.

All creative people want to do the unexpected.

The most interesting things that happen in my books are usually the things that arise spontaneously, the things that surprise me.

You have to keep surprising your audience.

I'm always very excited by something that's a curveball or from left field.

I like to do something different that people don't expect. That's what I've always been about, in everything I do.

So much of television is incredibly predictable. You watch the first five minutes and you know where it's going to go. If you can just create an element of surprise in both the storytelling and tone of a show, you're going to be way ahead of the pack.