Mark Waters Quotes

'Luther' is raw and brutal like 'Game Of Thrones,' but it's coincidence. If I'm drawn to anything, it would be the writing. Choosing a project is an organic process where I'm taken in by the character and storyline, not the genre, whether fantasy or gritty and raw.

I think the emotional appeal of a platform is what works. I think the old-media entities still have not figured out that part of the game plan.

No one reads to hear someone complain about the weather or how poorly their children are behaving. You have to give the readers a reason to turn the page. As a writer you have to invite someone to turn the page. And that is a skill you have to refine. That is why you have to read. You have to read to learn what it is that makes people turn the page.

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].

I think the worst thing you can do is take an arrogant approach and not give people enough content to wrap their heads around.

My feeling has always been if you entertain people, they give you permission to do more on a thematic or character level.

For me, a story's a story if people want to hear it; it's very much based on oral storytelling. And for me, a story is a story when people give me the privilege of listening when I'm speaking it out loud.

My audience is comprised of three categories. The first category contains the people who decide after the first five minutes that they've made a mistake and leave. The second category is the people who give the film a chance and leave annoyed after 40 minutes. The third category includes the people that watch the whole film and return to see it again. If I'm able to persuade 33% of the audience to stay, then I can say that I've succeeded.

There has to be an element of repetition for TV... You want people to be addicted to your show, and the way to get people addicted is not to give it to them once, but to give it to them a few times, until they get on board with it. It's just about finding that balance of the necessary repetition and making the things that are repetitive absolutely necessary while keeping everything else fresh.

Scripts are a house of cards and you can't just reach in the middle and pull out the middle card because the house of cards will fall down. But at a certain point you almost have to allow that house of cards to get knocked down a few times because you need to make it sturdier. How many times do you hear, "No, that doesn't make sense," or "Why would this happen?" That was a mistake. You shouldn't have those moments, because the moment you're knocked out of the story, then you're dead. And all you can go is moment to moment,or joke to joke. And that's gonna wear people out.

For me, it is important to not just tell the audience how the story ended today, but to give a glimpse into how other people's stories might go on, in the future.

People love stories and the more you can give information and knowledge and even wisdom through a story, the more likely you are to be heard.

Trying to find a human side to the character is a way to give them a chance to have people like them.

I think that it drives from an emotional connection with everybody that pulls you through all of those events, whether it's the events or what would be more the action, or I guess the visual effects side of it. So it always starts with me from - emotionally - 'Why do you care about the people who are going through what they're going through?' Because it takes a hell of a lot to put them through that. So you better care for them when they're doing it.

All I can do when I'm on stage is do a show where when I come back into town they cannot possibly afford to miss the show because they remember how fun it was.

Humans know when it's not a good story. Unless you do this for a living, you may not know exactly why you don't like a story, but you can't fool an audience ever. They know when you have it and they know when you don't.

I really think one of the greatest allies you can have is the imagination of your audience.

That's the most important thing for me in TV, telling the story to as many people as we can.

How many people want to read about three disreputable pigs and a dopey wolf with a disposition towards house demolition?

Entertain the people. Give them something they're not ready for, make them talk.

Technology isn't a villain. Technology should help, but if you just use the technology for the sake of technology, then you're cheating your audience. You're not giving them the best story and the best direction and so forth.

You do understand that you can't force the situation, but in terms of how you edit, you can define that to take the audience along, whether it be a storyline or a character moment that we can play out. The more experience you've had, the more beneficial it is, period.

Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one. You are trained to get rid of anything nonessential. You go in, you start writing your article, assuming a person's going to stop reading the minute you give them a reason. So the trick is: don't give them one.

If you have written something that the film people want, like a book, it does give you a way in.

As a storyteller, you also don't want to make people feel like they're left out, like other people who have read the book have an interior knowledge of this show, and the degree of difficulty in watching it is much higher.