Narrative Appeal Quotes

The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.

When Hollywood sees a good story about a man who sells confidence, they see themselves and they like it.

I went to film school so I have a writing and directing background, and I think a lot of the material I'm interested in writing and getting out there is stories about anti-heroes and people you should just not ordinarily root for - trying to figure out a way of appealing to people they wouldn't normally appeal to.

A story never looks as good as when the other fellow buys it.

I don't think people are ever going to a place where they're like, 'I'm over stories about character and love.'

Audiences are always open to an interesting story.

People seem to need a likable protagonist more than ever.

People like stories that are bigger than life, about characters with unusual powers. And when you get all the characters in the zodiac, it's so colorful, and it's so rich in different attitudes that the characters have.

The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.

I think the most appealing characters for the audience are the ones that you never know whether to root for them or whether to hate them. That's what keeps people drawn to their television sets.

To have Hollywood tell me or other women like me that we're not a market that interests them is silly. Good stories work.

If there's nothing interesting about a character, people leave because there's no desire to see what happens.

The secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably... in the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't. And yet you want to know again.

When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me.

I'm just drawn to something that has a good story. 'Outcasts' didn't do so well, but I really admired the premise behind the show.

Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.

I'm a total slave to a good story.

When the story is good enough, people can watch something three times the length of an opera.

What the readers want is a good story, and what the writers always want to luck into, it's a good story.

What I look for in a project is whether the storyline excites me.