I've read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, 'Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.' I don't want to be part of that.
Matthew McconaugheyRead
Television shows are not like cars or operating systems, and they are not best made by engineers or coders in the same assembly line manner as consumer products which need to be of uniform size, shape, and quality.
Interpretation
Television shows require creativity and variation, unlike standardized consumer products.
This quote emphasizes that television as an art form should not be treated like mass-produced items that prioritize uniformity. It suggests that the creative process of crafting shows demands originality and emotional depth, which cannot be achieved through a mechanical, one-size-fits-all approach used in engineering and manufacturing.
In practice
In a discussion about the future of television writing, you might use this quote to highlight the importance of originality.
I've read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, 'Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.' I don't want to be part of that.
Let my children have music! Let them hear live music.
You are both a work of art and an artist at work.
Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.
Any man who can write a page of living prose adds something to our life, and the man who can, as I can, is surely the last to resent someone who can do it even better. An artist cannot deny art, nor would he want to. A lover cannot deny love.
Of course I know that the twins are only words on a page, and I'm certainly not the sort of writer who talks to his characters or harbours any illusions about the creative process. But at the same time, I think it's juvenile and arrogant when literary writers compulsively remind their readers that the characters aren't real. People know that already. The challenge is to make an intelligent reader suspend disbelief, to seduce them into the reality of a narrative.
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