Josh Radnor Quotes

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.

Writing a TV show is totally different than writing features, or just, what I started doing is writing features. You write a little bit more organically. You start from the beginning to the end, beginning, middle and end.

I always think I know the way a novel will go. I write maps on oversized art pads like the kind I carried around in college when I was earnest about drawing. I need to have some idea of the shape of the novel, where its headed, so that I can proceed with confidence. But the truth is my characters start doing and saying things I don't expect.

I look for material that both interest me and challenges me. If I am drawn to the material and I have to work hard at it, the characters and the plots reflect the hours and hours of research.

But my favorite work is always my next piece.

I think when you're writing films that just come fresh out of your own imagination - I think probably anyone who's done that, there are certain themes or styles.

Any film I do needs to excite me at a script level.

I never... it's a hard thing: when I think about projects, I don't come off something and go, 'I really want to make a sci-fi film next,' or 'I really want to do a political thriller next.' It's really coming across - I'm really fascinated, partly by world building, but also about the character and what the journey is.

I don't know how to produce work if it's not something that's deeply scaring me or troubling me.

What drives me is character driven material.

Because I'm a novelist, I think in terms of structure. The way I keep going is through structure. It's what inspires me and pushes me through.

I find it really hard to throw myself into something artistically where I'm making up a whole character and finding something for that character to do.

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

Bill Condon, I must say, may have been one of the best professional experiences of my life, collaborating with him. He, himself, is an Academy Award winning screenwriter. He is a storyteller first and foremost, so we speak the same language. We approach things always from the story.

My stories run up and bite me on the leg - I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

As a result of my life on the road and the increasing number of rainy afternoons in cinemas, I began to get the idea that I might write a film.

My novels come from within me; they are things I feel I want to do.

Whatever it is that I thirst for in my current project tends to turn up in my following project.

I am not an analytical writer. Once I flesh out my characters and decide on the elements of my plot, the story unfolds in my head almost as though it was a movie reel.

The actual process of filmmaking, the many hours out of your life- it is very slow and boring. I'm not interested in that now unless an opportunity was provided for me.

I like to sit down every day and not know where the book is going. I have no idea where the book is going to go or how it's going to end as I'm writing it.

For me as a filmmaker, I do the projects I'm really excited about.

I always get inspiration from whatever characters say about my character.

Whenever I'm writing a book, small details from my life always creep in.

Sometimes I find it tiresome to write actions and describe the scene in a very intricate way so that every crew member understands where we are going - that I can find a little bit long and tiresome. But dialogue is just all my life. There's no way I could ever be challenged, not challenged, but I'm always so happy to write dialogue.