I remember when John Lasseter called me back in the late 1990s to personally invite me to come be the voice of Barbie in 'Toy Story 2.'
I first pitched the idea of doing a series of cartoons based on Bible stories. They didn't much like it.
As a writer, my main objective is to tell the story urgently - as if whispering it into one ear - and to know the characters intimately.
The story of two dreams is a coincidence, a line drawn by chance, like the shapes of lions or horses that are sometimes formed by clouds.
I'm a storyteller; that's what exploration really is all about. Going to places where others haven't been and returning to tell a story they haven't heard before.
I'm uninterested in superheroes. I am only interested in real stories, real people, real connection.
Every flower has a poetry of love in her heart, every tree has a story of struggle in his mind.
I've read stories that are set in a celebrity's house, and you know where it is and what it looks like and what's inside it, and that's not something I want anyone to know.
I write on sacred stories, symbols and rituals of all cultures - European, American and Chinese - but my audiences, typically, like me to focus on India.
I do think the story in Halloween 5 is a bit stupid, and there's a lot more blood. They're obviously going to take the Halloween series in a different direction.
My interpretation of a strong director is someone who knows their story. That's what directors are, they're storytellers because they're directing where your focus is going to be as an audience.
You do get certain publications in the States where, if things don't go according to plan, they flip the story and it becomes very negative.
Even if you're in the thick of revising another work, write something new. Something small. It's important to keep telling yourself stories.
No one ever tells a story to help you figure out where to go when a door closes on you.
I've commissioned an adaptation of 'The Jungle', by Upton Sinclair, a story of a young immigrant from Lithuania to the meat-packing industry of Chicago in 1904, and the rise of the unions in America.
I came up with new leads for game stories by being observant and clever, by using the many gifts of the English language to intrigue and hook a reader.
A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit.
A true writer should be able to write about any color. It's the story they tell that should affect people, not the race.
When I did A Soldier's Story, I was very young and green and thought I knew everything-now I know I know everything!
I would rather read a poorly structured story that has fresh ideas than a tightly structured one with cliches.
When you direct a movie, you're basically looking at a story, the way you want to look at it. You bring that director's vision, and I'm totally open for that.
