Mark Canton Quotes

You have only so many chances to tell stories. I didn't want to be forever wedded to one form of storytelling when there are so many out there.

How many times can you put together 26 different stories without running out?

I'm actually quite critical of the storytelling theme. I think all the storytellers are not storytellers.

I'm always excited about stories that allow me to explore a character and create interesting stories and worlds that we haven't seen before.

The wonderful thing about cinema is you can bring a 3D world to life.

I think as storytelling has changed, you know, it's kind of turned into kind of hyper-reality movies.

I am really interested in storytelling in general - nothing is off-limits!

The trouble with telling a good story is that it invariably reminds the other fellow of a dull one.

James Cameron has always been way ahead of the curve in terms of the use of technology in his movies.

My novels are high concept. I guess big ideas interest me more than, say, the minutiae of domestic life.

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

Short stories are fiction's R & D department, and failed or less-than-conclusive experiments are not just to be expected but to be hoped for.

There is commerciality in storytelling, even in a film or a piece of literature. These things exist. That's why stories came to be: to hold attention and, while you're not looking, you'll get hopefully some nutritional value that the author has been working up. That's narrative; that's passing stuff down.

Quite often, little germs of ideas have come from something that I've observed or someone's told me. The process of it becoming fiction is expanding and extending it: stretching the rubber band of reality.

While writing a novel, I don't read anything new in fiction. I am too engrossed.

I like reading a lot. Jeffrey Archer and Robert Ludlum are my favourite authors. I love making realistic cinema, so I read non-fiction more.

I enjoy the writing process and producing; I enjoy seeing an idea come to fruition. I'm driven by very complex characters. You look at the pilot of 'Breaking Bad,' where there's so much depth to the character, you can't help but be invested when you watch.

My major allegiance has been to storytelling, not to history.

I think it's important that filmmakers look at the technology and figure out how to make the theatrical experience a little more exciting.

Well, to be honest I think I'm a better short story writer than a novelist. Novels I find very hard, hours and hours, weeks and weeks, of conscious thought - whereas short stories slip out painlessly in a few days.

You can't visit readers where you think they are. You have to invite them home to where you are and try to lure them into your universe. That's the art of storytelling.

A work of fiction is conceived very much the same way as a dream occurs in the mind of a sleeper. But a lot of it is imagination. It's not based on real people.

The technology available for film-making now is incredible, but I am a big believer that it's all in the story.

I write and write and write, and then I edit it down to the parts that I think are amusing, or that help the storyline, or I'll write a notebook full of ideas of anecdotes or story points, and then I'll try and arrange them in a way that they would tell a semi-cohesive story.

Furthermore, even if ideas were gettable - say, stacked in a secluded cave like the Dead Sea scrolls - I wouldn't go there. An 'idea,' especially one adhered to from start to finish, can be disastrous for a compelling piece of fiction.