I think there's always satisfaction that comes from digging in and telling a story and being on the front line and writing about it. I think there's a venue available if you look. Even print journalism is in good shape in areas.
Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought up in a house of women.
I think every good song tells a story, as ambiguous and vague as it may be. And if you know what a song is talking about, it can only help your performance.
Yes, in all my research, the greatest leaders looked inward and were able to tell a good story with authenticity and passion.
When there's so much left to do, why spend your time focusing on things you've already done, counting trophies or telling stories about the good old days?
It is the consistency of the information that matters for a good story, not its completeness. Indeed, you will often find that knowing little makes it easier to fit everything you know into a coherent pattern.
Every day I fantasise about situations and little themes I see in front of me that would make a good beginning of a story. But one has to be disciplined and just sit down and do it.
I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
If I had to choose criteria, for me, it's about first the director. I want to be a part of something that's good and intellectually challenging. After the director it's the character and the story. That's the deal for me.
That's probably when I get the most angry at American movies, when they just so cynically manipulate the audience without even trying to give a good story.
I was a better writer when I was teaching. I was constantly going over the basics and constantly reminding myself, as I reminded my students, what made a good story, a good poem.
I think my Wallander stories give a fairly good image of the world in the 1990s. I don't regret anything about that - on the contrary!
If you have a good story idea, don't assume it must form a prose narrative. It may work better as a play, a screenplay or a poem. Be flexible.
It is my writing dilemma. The world of spying is my genre. My struggle is to demystify, to de-romanticise the spook world, but at the same time harness it as a good story.
I think sometimes actors are drawn to good television because you have more time to sell it, you have more time to shape a character, and to tell a story, and that's really appealing.
I might not write fiction in the literary sense. But I write very well. My characters are good. My dialogue is good. And my stories are really involving.
I want to do some fiction writing, I've had some pretty good luck with short stories, I'd like to do a couple of larger things.
I don't have the energy or the mental security to get involved with all that. I think it's a good idea to be able to disappear into the story, so that the first thing the audience sees isn't you, but the part.
Writers would submit scripts to me, and if I liked one well enough to submit to magazine editors, I had the know-how whether the story was good or bad.
I don't have a particular ambition in any medium. I just want to keep telling stories. If somebody pays me, also good.
I've never looked at my career in terms of, What haven't I done that I want to do? I just generally find a story that I think is a good one and go to work.
