Andrea Hirata Quotes

We start with strong characters and build the movie from there. That not to say we don't struggle with story - that's the most challenging part.

Sometimes, like in 'Invisible Monsters,' I get too out of control, and instead of a plot point every chapter, I want a plot point in every sentence.

When I write a book, characters come to life for me somewhere at the back of my head. I strive to make them flesh and blood in an abstract way, in words.

I came into this business to create characters that moved people and told stories.

I plot the first 5 or 6 chapters quite minutely, and also the end. So I know where I am going but not how I'm going to get there, which gives characters the chance to develop organically, as happens in real life as you get to know a person.

To combine telling an interesting story with brilliantly written characters is the most difficult thing to do.

I'm a novelist, so I can't write about ideas unless they're attached to people.

If I ever wrote a script myself, it would be strongly emotional material.

I do like to embed a fictional character firmly in an occupation.

I love writing letters. In order to write a novel in first person, I think I needed an addressee.

I just want to tell a good story, so I always ask myself, 'Are these people real to me?'

Any show I'm working on, I want the stories to always be about something, and to have the potential to be emotional. That's the kind of story that I like.

When I wrote for TV, I was always thinking in terms of character and story. After fifteen years, it became hard-wired in me.

I'm more interested in character than events. I've observed that about myself as a writer. I find events, even the most dramatic sort, not to be such fertile ground.

'The Piano Lesson' is very sophisticated, easily the most adult or complex material I've attempted. It's the first film I've written that has a proper story, and it was a big struggle for me to write. It meant I had to admit the power of narrative.

Probably every book I read influenced me in some small way. Authors like Jan Westcott, Kathleen Winsor, Catherine Cookson, Georgette Heyer, and even Barbara Cartland taught me to write character-driven stories.

Settings are obviously important - and as a writer, you have to respect what was real at the time of the story you're writing. But the real key to success lies in finding the right characters to carry that story.

What can I say: I'm a writer - I enjoy forcing pain and suffering on my characters!

What I have in advance are people I want to write about and a problem or problems that I see those people encountering and that I want to explore - it all proceeds sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, and scene by scene.

I'm just a sucker for a good script.

When you've got good writing, you can kind of give up all the research, in a way, and start just following the emotional integrity of the journey of your character.

I think all characters are facets of the writer. In a way, they have to be if you're going to write them convincingly.

I tend to write one character at a time. But I don't write the entirety of one character at a time.

When I work, I think mainly in terms of dramatic choices.

I don't do issue writing. I do character writing.