Dramatic Storytelling Quotes

Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that when it is untied, the whole man is visible.

I've always had a flare for the dramatic. I thought about being an actor and I thought about directing, but writing truly became something I needed to do, just to stay sane. It's my over-pressure valve.

What do I need a movie for? The stage is on a higher level in every way, and a more satisfying medium. Movies, by comparison, are like calendar art next to great paintings. You can't really do very much in movies or in television, but the stage is such an anarchistic medium.

I'm afraid, as true as love is, it is tested by circumstance and sometimes you don't make the best choices. As much as the fans claim [that] all they want is just want people sitting around and having a nice time together, trust me, you would not be watching the show if there wasn't conflict, if there wasn't drama, if there wasn't jeopardy. And it's not just physical jeopardy, it's romantic jeopardy as well.

Melodrama is one of the most stunning art forms. These are stories where the emotions are big, and the situations are big, and the artists believe in the situation dramatically. There's no irony or distance.

Focus on the play like it has a history and a life of its own.

The hardest thing for me to do, and the best thing I've done and learned as an actor is to sacrifice being funny in certain circumstances in order to do something that makes sense for the story or the character, or emotionally.

You can't do the end of the world in a conventionally dramatic way or Boy Meets Girl way.

That's what I think musicals will come to. No backstage stories, nothing of that sort.

My plays are always involved with society, but I'm writing about people, too, and it's clear over the years that audiences understand them and care about them. The political landscape changes, the issues change, but the people are still there. People don't really change that much.

However much I may like to talk about or be interested in a more philosophical or moral agenda, [film] is, ultimately, about narrative. And it's about telling stories that are engaging and dramatic.

I like a drama. And I think that's the basis of good films, or good plays, is to have a nice drama.

As a dramatist, I don't have politics.

I love going to plays. There's a subconscious side to it, obviously-some people like to be spanked for XYZ psychological reasons, and I like to go to plays, and I can't entirely explain why.

Dark Horse movie might be blood, sweat, and tears for Todd Solondz, because things are so important to him and so specific. He has such a rhythm and a tone. So while he may have to work so hard to keep that intact, it allows the actors the freedom to just breathe. Because he's done all the heavy lifting. He really has. He has everything the way he needs it. And so we can just get there and be whatever he saw in the audition.

I think moviemakers are dramatists.

Acting is broad enough a church that you can pick your races, decide which way you want to go at different times.I think that the story and circumstance tends to dictate the most and then what you do with your own approach after that.

I'm generally not a social dramatist or comedy writer. My interests have always been more in psychological stories or personal relations and comic ideas.

When I see an amazing play or movie, it inspires me as an actress and a filmmaker.

I like melodrama because it is situated just at the meeting point between life and theater.

In high school, I got into a speech class run by a nun who used to put on plays. She put me in a oratorical competitive program. You would tell a story, and they were very corny, something like 'My Childhood Hero.' It was something out of 'Readers Digest.' I always thought it was too much and too dramatic.

I would love to be able to write a tragedy in my imagination--it would turn into a masterpiece.

I tried to write a TV series, and then I discovered first of all that I love writing more than anything on this earth, and that you could write exactly as well as you want to.

I was new to acting on a stage in a narrative as opposed to acting on a stage as a stand-up. And like everything else it's just like comfort level. The first time I did stand-up I was at a place called the B3 in New York on Third and Avenue B and I not only didn't take the mic out of the stand, but I clutched the stand of the entire time.