J. J. Abrams Quotes

In writing, I search for believability, simplicity and emotional impact.

A good novel should be deeply unsettling - its satisfactions should come from its authenticity and its formal coherence. We must feel something crucial is at stake.

The villain of any story is often the most compelling character.

The key is a good story. If you have a good story, you have enough emotional beats that you can hit.

I didn't expect to feel pathos for the villains in our show. I feel quite moved in several of our episodes; I never realized that a show like 'Motive,' which aims for a broad appeal, could have that sort of emotional impact.

A good story should make you laugh, and a moment later break your heart.

'Jersey' is a very strong story and is driven by emotions.

My primary goal is always to tell a story that will resonate with people on a deeply emotional level.

I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.

Levity, you need levity to feel anything. You need to laugh before you cry. I think films that take themselves too seriously without any levity are missing an important ingredient to the potential emotional impact of their stories.

The harm that you do to others is the harm that you do to yourself and you cannot think then that you can cause wars in other parts of the world and destroy people and drone them without this having a terrible impact on your own soul and your own consciousness.

If you aren't telling a good story, nobody thinks you died too soon; they just think you died.

I try to tell the best story, and the story that has some heart and some genuine terror and some social commentary and some comedy and some romance and some sex and some violence.

I would say of characters I've created, the one I've felt the most connected to emotionally was Adam Austin from 'The Prophet.' I think it was the connection to the idea that one decision you make innocently enough can have very serious, drastic consequences for someone else's life.

That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there.

I can be so blown away by story lines.

I don't think I will do a Mafia character again. I want to get away from the violence a little bit, because it is starting to bother me personally.

My first duty to write a gripping yarn. Second is to convey credible characters who make you feel what they feel. Only third comes the idea.

I enjoy receiving and giving realistic fiction, for both children and adults, with strong characters, beautiful language, and humane visions.

The goal, I suppose, any fiction writer has, no matter what your subject, is to hit the human heart and the tear ducts and the nape of the neck and to make a person feel something about the characters are going through and to experience the moral paradoxes and struggles of being human.

The basic quality that any great story must have is a story that illustrates the human condition.

Lastly get emotionally connected to your story so you can deliver it, you know, if you can't deliver the emotions to your script there's no point to your story. Story is the key.

I think the serious roles impact people the most.

The average action game doesn't much traffic in thematic grandiosity, but the BioShock games are different.

We try to be driven by what's a good story, what's truthful, and the drama of what happens next.