Victor Garber Quotes

'The Sopranos' all came down to the writing. I wouldn't have been on for as long as I was if the writing weren't so good.

My preference is for good writing. It doesn't matter if it's for film or TV. Whatever. It starts with the writing. Even though I've had problems with writers, it doesn't matter how great of an actor you are. If the writing is bad, you're going to struggle.

'Justified' had such dead-on beautiful scripts that you didn't want to mess with it.

The elegance of a really good screenplay, I admire it. I can't do it.

Every actor just wants good writing.

The thing I am attracted to is just good writing and stories that are based somewhat in reality.

For 'Breaking Bad,' it was like, that's one of the best pilots, probably the best pilot I have ever read.

My only close-to-game-plan is to follow good writing. If the writing is in TV or if it's in theater or in film, that's it. It doesn't really matter what the medium is.

I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word: a journey.

I have been sent three or four scripts for television series, but there wasn't anything I really wanted to do. I want to tell a good story, whether it's a TV show, a movie, whatever. That's really my No. 1 criteria.

There are a lot of good stories out there, but I haven't found too many great scripts.

When you have really good writing, you're compelled by the actors who are in it, and you may think it's the actors or the design or the filmmaking of it, but then you're like, 'Well, the base is a really rich story that these guys have created.'

You hope for that with anything, but with a TV show, the writer and the actor being the right mix are more important than the actual writing of the pilot because you hope it's something that can have a long life.

For me, it's always about what's on the page. I have tremendous respect for writing. When you recognize good writing, and you're lucky enough to get it, like with 'Lost,' that's what I follow.

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.

You have to go where the good writing is.

A good novel is a good novel, pointe finale. And I think what I'm writing is exactly that.

I honestly feel like we never had a bad episode by TV standards. Every week I felt there were so many strong components of the show, especially the writing.

There's such good writing now on television and I don't see a lot of great writing on films sadly.

Working on 'Mad Men' was an incredible experience. It was such an incredible show with beautiful writing and so much complexity.

'The Leftovers' is my favorite job I've ever had in my life, anywhere, ever. It is one of the greatest TV shows ever made.

The simple idiot's advice I give to screenwriters who say they want to sell a screenplay is, 'Write good.'

The cool thing about 'Transparent' is that the show is funny but not like a sitcom is funny. It all comes down to the writing... The writers on that show are so good that you don't have to worry about anything. There are so many things that can go wrong making a TV show or a movie, but if the writing's good, that's, like, 95 percent of it.

We all have great faith in the writing team that puts together 'Heroes.'

I have a DVD of 'Lois & Clark,' and I don't know how the special effects hold up, because all the technology's gotten so much better. But the writer - the woman that wrote 'Lois & Clark' - I think those stories were good.