Peter Paige Quotes

Character development is conflict.

The villain drives the plot.

A story is built on characters and reasons.

If you know your characters well enough, you aren't trying to grasp for storylines. You're really thinking about their flaws and their passions and what they're chasing.

Know what your characters want, know what they need most, know what they fear most, and don't be fearful of facing it, no matter how unpleasant it may be.

I'm all about the story. If I like the character and I think the story's entertaining, I'll do it.

The beginning of a plot is the prompting of desire.

I think that internal conflict works very well, because, after all, all the best drama is fuelled by conflict.

The main question in drama, the way I was taught, is always, 'What does the protagonist want?' That's what drama is. It comes down to that. It's not about theme, it's not about ideas, it's not about setting, but what the protagonist wants.

I love storytelling. I love characters that are complicated and layered, real people, that you see why they do what they do.

The most important thing for me in an action sequence is, you understand the characters' intention and the challenges the characters are going to have to face: what the character story is within the action sequence.

With any role I play, I find out what the human problem is first.

It's much easier for me to think in terms of character movement and emotion and story rather than, 'What are some wacky hijinks we can throw together?'

You don't want to make performances; you want to make people. When a project knows, 'Okay, my bad guys need to be a little sympathetic, and my good guys need to have a bit of a mean streak,' you're off to a good start.

As an actor, I'm always interested in my characters getting into trouble, because conflict is, you know, the great determiner of someone's mettle.

We want our villains and antagonists to have distinct motivations.

Get to know your characters as well as you can let there be something at stake, and then let the chips fall where they may.

I've always thought that, as a romance writer, I had the best job in the world. I sit around all day making up emotion-drenched, conflict-laden stories that push my heroes and heroines to the edge of sanity. Then I give them a happy ending.

I often attribute my screenwriting to journalism because they drill in the who, what, when, where and why - but we really need to land on that why. That's what I've been exploring in my writing for many years and trying to get better at.

It was always about the story rather than the character.

Fans want to see a story with characters, and they want to see a story.

I try to give both my heroes and villains an emotional dimensionality which provides the motivation for their actions.

I still don't understand why the tag of 'action hero' follows me. My films have all these elements - romance, action and comedy. None of the fight sequences of my character is an act of randomness. There's a reason to action in my films.

I really think if you take away a character's obstacles then there's no comedy.

What makes a story a story is that something changes. Internal, external, small or large, trivial or of earth-shattering importance. Doesn't matter.