The material of literary talent is words; the material of story talent is life itself.
Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.
Angry contradiction of the patriarch is not creativity; it’s delinquency calling for attention. Difference for the sake of difference is as empty an achievement as slavishly following the commercial imperative.
We rarely know where we are going; writing is a discovery.
Secure writers don’t sell first drafts. They patiently rewrite until the script is as director-ready, as actor-ready as possible. Unfinished work invites tampering, while polished, mature work seals its integrity.
No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.
Most of life’s actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower.
In life two negatives don’t make a positive. Double negatives turn positive only in math and formal logic. In life things just get worse and worse and worse.
No civilization, including Plato’s, has ever been destroyed because its citizens learned too much.
A culture cannot evolve without honest, powerful storytelling. When a society repeatedly experiences glossy, hollowed-out, pseudo-stories, it degenerates. We need true satires and tragedies, dramas and comedies that shine a clean light into the dingy corners of the human psyche and society.
Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.
Writing is a marathon, not a sprint.
Life is chaotic and meaningless, and you have to find your meaning. You must find the answer, you can’t just live. That’s the point of story: helping you find your meaning in life.
Influence is just persuasion in slow motion.
Stories build cultures by answering the big questions.
Talent without craft is like fuel without an engine, it burns wildly but accomplishes nothing.
Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.
Stories are the currency of human relationships.
Never sleep with anybody who has more problems than you do.
I cannot be a character in a bad movie. I can’t be.