Narrative Tropes Quotes

You know, you find that these stories ... will turn one of us into the good guy and one of us into the bad guy. If you look at it closely or even not that closely ... it's ridiculous.

Like many works of literature, Hollywood chooses for its villains people who strive for social dominance through the pursuit of wealth, prestige, and power. But the ordinary business of capitalism is much more egalitarian: It's about finding meaning and enjoyment in work and production.

I like to play with tropes.

If you write genre fiction, you follow the rules, and you have to follow them because readers expect that.

There's that old adage about how there's only seven plots in the world and Shakespeare's done them all before.

Usually, witches are the little side character... a bad female character that comes in and leaves.

I get a stack of scripts, like, once a month, and most of the time, you find these placeholder girls that are there to provide a bounce for the male character. So we know he's funny because she's serious and she's mad at him. We know he's strong because she needs saving. So really, her job is to validate this personality trait of our hero or male.

Hindered characters / seldom have mothers / in Irish stories, but they all have grandmothers.

It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life.

There's never been a fantasy movie of the epic battle of good versus evil that ended with evil winning.

I think there are certain tenets set in place for all different types on genres. For thrillers, women usually die first. I can't say exactly why, and it's kind of a bummer... But I also can't explain why the wallflower girl in the romantic comedy always gets the guy in the end. That's just the way those movies go.