I like good stories. Quality products and character are what's important. Even if the script isn't that strong, if I challenge myself with a great character, I'll go for it.
Boys, particularly, like stories where they can have images in their imagination, where they can go to scary places and experiment with what can happen.
Both 'The Wire' and 'Queer as Folk' had a big scope. They were panoramas, telling ambitious stories about two cities, Baltimore and Manchester, for the first time.
When you get into a film, it is one story and one set development of a character, and you are able to delve into one character for a short period of time and discover everything about them.
I loved all ghost stories. So I guess it was only a matter of time before I wrote one.
It's like tabloid news programs that talk about how horrible something is, while at the same time they're glorifying it as their top story.
After The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, the audience would like to know where, when, and who arrests Hannibal Lecter for the first time. This is the story of Red Dragon.
I don't think they knew exactly where they were going with the character, but they lay those stories out ahead of time, so they had some idea where they wanted it to go.
If one day a TV series comes into my head, and that is what I want to write, I'll write it. It just depends what story is in my brain at the time.
One thing that happens on the 'Newsroom' is that every time a real story does get incorporated into the show, there's always an angle that's provided that hasn't really been dealt with yet.
What I find fascinating about Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights we celebrate at this time of the year, is the way its story was transformed by time.
Sea Hunt was the first time anyone tackled a show that took place underwater. The stories were sort of exciting for kids, like cops and robbers underwater.
TV has gotten perhaps better than your average film script, but at the same time, it's fun to give it all you've got for a few months and produce a story.
I'm inspired every time I see a role I'd like to play, an actor turn in a well crafted performance, a story I'd like to tell, direct or produce.
Like so many writers I started writing stories because I didn't have much time for anything else.
I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist, but rather a novelist who travels - and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places.
The name America has definitely grown on me. I wish there was a big patriotic story behind it, but the truth is that my grandfather was a librarian who knew all sorts of random facts.
Goggles: I like The Wizard of Oz. I like the Tin Man.
Roy Walker: That story was just a trick to get you to do something for me.
[first lines] Giosué Orefice: [narrating as an adult] This is a simple story... but not an easy one to tell.
Satine: Tell our story Christian, that way I'll-I'll always be with you.
