Storytelling Priority Quotes

I never let the technical stuff get in the way of the storytelling.

I don't care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told.

I'm a sci-fi fan, and I guess you have to let go of some of that at some point, and realize that as long as you're focused on telling a story that you care about, at the end of the day, that's what really matters, even to hard-core sci-fi fans.

If I can get a story about a player, I would give you a ship load of numbers, batting averages and all just for that one precious story. That's the kind of thing that I love to do.

If I had to choose between a relative and a good story, I would take the story.

My movies are unadorned, they're not particularly fancy, I think they're kind of workmanlike in some ways, focusing on the writing and the acting.

I don't think that a film should be known as 'male-centric' or 'female-centric,' but it should be known for the story. That would be really nice, and viable, too.

To me, length is an artificial and arbitrary factor in a film.

I left things out - my motivations, my history, my emotional responses - because I am not good at understanding them or writing about them. I tried and it was generally boring and always unconvincing. Most importantly I wanted to try to place Afghans and Afghanistan in the foreground rather than my own character.

As a writer, I always try as hard as possible to get out of the way of the story, so maybe that's the most important thing my readers should know - I'm all about the story, not about the ego.

We all have an obligation as actors to be true to ourselves and our best instincts, but often there's a higher purpose, which is to serve the text and, in the grander sense, serve the series, even if that means to fall on your sword and take the hit.

At the end of the day, I'd much rather do a piece about people in a story that I find riveting and intriguing and moving, versus really carrying some kind of heavy political agenda on my sleeve. That's not who I am.

Every role is physical to a certain extent, but as a viewer, I don't respond well to actors doing more than they need to tell a story.

Sometimes I'm considered, I guess, a subtle actor. Maybe I'm less of a showman and more just trying to tell the story. I don't know what the perception is. I just want to tell the story so the story as a whole works as opposed to just making sure that I work.