Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance.
A friend of mine told a story about a date with a guy she was really excited about: He stood her up. He then called her, begging her forgiveness and giving some excuse. She told him to get lost, telling him that he only gets one shot with her, and he blew it.
If there was a story about boys playing punk I don't think I would've made it, because it would just be the same, it wouldn't be interesting enough.
I write movies, so - I look at boxing, and I commentated on it, as if I were telling you the story of a movie or a short story.
Pretty much always. We need to tell the story of our life to someone.
When I approach a story or movie, the story is the most important thing.
Bad things can happen, and often do--but they only take up a few pages of your story; and anyone can survive a few pages.
What I always try to do in all my books is to make the stories such that if you don't agree with me politically or you're not interested in the thematics, the story will still keep you turning the pages.
You have to find a way of shutting the future out and focusing on the writing. One of the problems I'll have with writing my second book is getting back into a situation where I think about the words on the page rather than the publishing industry, or success, or any kind of readership I may now have. I'll have to do what writers do, which is focus on the story and nothing else.
You are the director of your own life story. Don't cast idiots or people will walk out during your 2nd act.
I had the feeling I had to stay focused on what's lying under. A big part of the story in Toni Erdmann happens on the sub-level. On the surface, a lot of scenes, it's banal. If the actor starts thinking, "Oh, I'm in a genre, I'm doing a comedy, I'm doing funny things," then you lose.
The gift of literature is that, in some lucky cases, reading a novel or a story makes the reader more curious, more open-minded.
I really love the process, with stage, of rehearsal, you get to create a character, and you have a beginning, a middle, and an end of story. And in television, you don't.
When the story is good enough, people can watch something three times the length of an opera.
It was difficult, and yet I was very eager to do it. It was a really odd thing. I really wanted to do that story. I really wanted to write the death of Captain Kirk. I really wanted to do it in the movie.
I've told the same story twelve different ways, but I think that's just part of what writers do. Once may not be enough.
I want to tell you a story. I have no other vanity.
Nothing is as important as a likable narrator. Nothing holds a story together better.
By the second sentence of a pitch, the entirety of the story should be explained.
He brought imagination to the story of the Creation.