Robert Stone Quotes

When you do scenes that are just exposition, they feel false.

The roles I'm interested in or have been interested in, you know, it's going to get down to conflict. Drama is conflict - conflict of interests.

Storytelling is about two things; it's about character and plot.

I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense.

The most important aspect of any story, to me, is character.

I try to stay away from stuff that's just action, action, action, action, action, and you kind of fast-forward through the dialogue scenes. I'm not interested in doing that. Give me a reason to fight, and I'll go there. But don't just make it, 'You touched my pen! Haaa-yah!' I've done that before.

On the stage, the characters express themselves more through words than images. So the arguments of the characters and the tension between characters - words have to be used to express that, and I love that about theater.

If the characters are acting true to themselves, then that chemistry and suspense will flow.

Listen to great storytellers; slowly, you will learn about voice, timing, tension, structure, climax - all the things you need to tell stories that will capture the imagination of your audience.

I didn't necessarily have a total idea when I was writing the movie of where everything was going. I just wanted to have really realistic dialogue and write like people I knew talked. I tried to keep it very real.

Technique is of less interest than character and story.

The mark of a writer is to make a story as likely as possible, and I've done my best to deliver authentic atmosphere.

Screenwriting is about condensing.

The essence to me of all good drama is argument.

I have read a thousand screenplays, and I have acted in a handful of them, and I have felt when it feels good, the writing, and it feels natural, and feels funny or sad or honest or whatever it may be. You connect. And I felt when it feels like writing, when it feels stale, or when it feels artificial or forced, or too theatrical or whatever.

Everything I do is just an opportunity to tell a great story.

Action should always be about character and story, not a gimmick.

We need the villain sometimes. It makes for an interesting story.

Conflict is the place where character and plot intersect.

All you need to know about plotting is twofold. 1. Give your characters goals. 2. Don't let them reach those goals.

I began as a dramatist in the theater, so I'm always thinking about how a story moves, what it looks like, how to engage the senses, how dialogue sounds, what feels authentic and sounds real, what's funny, how to build distinctive and original characters - all the aspects of playwriting, scene-building, the architecture of dramatizing.

Dialogue is character and character is plot.

If you have no conflict, you have no story. That's number one. That's a rule of novels.

I think my biggest problem, though, at least in drafts, is not repeating myself. After eight books I get worried that a character or piece of dialog might be too much like something I've already done. So it's a challenge to keep it fresh.

You can't tell a good story without conflict - the story can't be beautiful or meaningful. We're taught to run from conflict, and it's robbing us of some really good stories.