I've set the bar quite high in terms of storytelling.
To tell a good story and to illuminate the world: the two things are completely linked. That is the point. That is what I've always wanted to do.
With 'Hannibal,' I just really want people to feel something.
An awful lot of storytelling isn't really about making people understand - it's about making people care.
I think that, anybody with a strong will to tell a story, then that is fantastic. I think it's fantastic. I think sometimes people have what I'll call an ulterior motive with a story.
You always have to know what the ambition of the scene is, what the purpose of that scene is in the telling of the story overall, so that you're there to support the story.
It is perfectly legitimate to write novels which are essentially prose poems, but in the end, I think, a novel is like a car, and if you buy a car and grow flowers in it, you're forgetting that the car is designed to take you somewhere else.
My goal was just to tell the unlikely story in a way that would feel as convincing as possible.
The word war itself has a kind of glazing abstraction to it that conjures up bombs and bullets and so on, whereas my goal is to try to, so much as I can, capture the heart and the stomach and the back of the throat of readers who can lie in bed at night and participate in a story.
The goal, first and foremost, is to tell a satisfying - entertaining - story.
In all my work, I try to tell great stories that people want to go to the movie theater to watch, or want to turn on, and are compelled to watch it, over and over and over again, and will make a mark when they grow up.
I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story.
The thing I learned from 'Pride and Glory' is that people like to feel a little better leaving the theater than they did coming in.
The aim of fiction is absolute and honest truth.
The goal of storytelling should be to make stories as ubiquitous as music.
My goal always is to tell a universal story, meaning it's about a person who has an idea, a vision, a dream, an ambition to make the world somewhat less chaotic.
Any novel of importance has a purpose. If only the "purpose" be large enough, and not at outs with the passional inspiration.
A whole film is just about arriving at a moment where you hopefully transfer some feeling to the audience.
Because I write realistic fiction, I generally don't think about fixing anyone - I just think about how I want to feel at the end of the book - And I try to write toward that feeling.
For me, the only ego that needs serving in putting together a film is the story's, the ego of the story and it's the piece itself that you want to bring out the voice of the piece. You're really serving that and that's the thing that you have a basic understanding of.
I'm not writing great literature. I'm writing commercial fiction for people to enjoy the stories and to like the characters.
My number one goal has always been to try to tell interesting, cohesive, long-term stories.
If the goal of an actor is to tell the best story ever, there's no higher story than Jesus Christ.
I don't consider myself a teacher of moral and political positions. I don't want to be that. I can't help but have a point of view when I make a film, but my first job is to entertain you.
I had a very specific idea of the personal nature of the story I wanted to tell, really changing the image and the perception of Kratos.
