Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for.
Aaron SorkinRead
I'll get cast occasionally as sort of the jerk version of myself, and I have fun doing that. But it's really better for everyone if I stay behind the camera.
Interpretation
Sorkin reflects on his preference to create behind the camera rather than being in front of it as a performer.
Aaron Sorkin expresses a self-awareness about his persona, suggesting that while he enjoys playing a certain type of character, he believes that his true contribution lies in his writing and directing. This highlights the importance of knowing one's strengths and choosing the role that best contributes to the collective artistic vision.
In practice
In a filmmakers' panel discussing the best roles for writers.
Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for.
The upside of web-based journalism is that everybody gets a chance. The downside is that everybody gets a chance.
Decisions are made by those who show up. Don't ever forget that you're a citizen of this world.
Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.
With 'The Social Network,' I got into it at first because frankly I thought there was a cool courtroom drama to be had with the intellectual properties. And then what further drew me in was that the most extraordinary social networking device ever created was created by the world's most antisocial person. I liked that story.
Tell me what you think and then tell me what the really smart person in the room who disagrees with you thinks.
But all art is sensual and poetry particularly so. It is directly, that is, of the senses, and since the senses do not exist without an object for their employment all art is necessarily objective. It doesn't declaim or explain, it presents.
Basically everything I've done in art, I was in possession of when I was 20 years old. I use a waste retrieval method of working. I'll go back and use something that disgusted me 15 years ago but that I had enough sense to think about. Some artists change dramatically. I see my work more like history being written.
Successful fiction does not need to be validated by 'real life'; I cringe whenever a writer is asked how much of a novel is 'real'.
The writing gets done away from the keyboard and away from the studio in my head, in solitude. And then I come in and hopefully have something, then I wrestle with sounds and picture all day long. But the ideas usually come from a more obscure place, like a conversation with a director, a still somebody shows you, or whatever.
A typewriter is a means of transcribing thought, not expressing it.
To me, the best zombie movies aren’t the splatter fests of gore and violence with goofy characters and tongue in cheek antics. Good zombie movies show us how messed up we are, they make us question our station in society… and our society’s station in the world. They show us gore and violence and all that cool stuff too… but there’s always an undercurrent of social commentary and thoughtfulness.
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