There's this inherent screenplay structure that everyone seems to be stuck on, this three-act thing. It doesn't really interest me. To me, it's kind of like saying, 'Well, when you do a painting, you always need to have sky here, the person here and the ground here.' Well, you don't.
Interpretation
Kaufman critiques traditional narrative structures in storytelling and artistic expression.
In this quote, Charlie Kaufman expresses his disdain for the conventional three-act structure commonly used in screenwriting, comparing it to rigid guidelines in painting. He advocates for creativity and innovation in storytelling, suggesting that artists should not feel constrained by established formulas, and instead embrace a more free-form approach that allows for unique expression.
In practice
During a workshop on creative writing, you can use this quote to encourage participants to explore non-traditional story paths.
When I'm writing, I'm trying to immerse myself in the chaos of an emotional experience, rather than separate myself from it and look back at it from a distance with clarity and tell it as a story. Because that's how life is lived, you know?
I think if I've worked anything through with screenwriting it's that I'm not going to be able to work anything through.
The world needs you. It doesn't need you at a party having read a book about how to appear smart at parties - these books exist, and they're tempting - but resist falling into that trap. The world needs you at the party starting real conversations, saying, 'I don't know,' and being kind.
There's no way to approach anything in an objective way. We're completely subjective; our view of the world is completely controlled by who we are as human beings, as men or women, by our age, our history, our profession, by the state of the world.
We try to organize the world, which isn't organized the way our brains want to organize it. We tell stories about the people in our lives, we project ideas onto them. We project relationships with people, we make our lives into stories. I don't think we can avoid doing that.
It occurred to me that every work of art is a synecdoche, there's no way around it. Every creative work that someone does can only represent an aspect of the whole of something. I can't think of an exception to that.
What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.
It's wonderful when music is intellectually stimulating. But ultimately it has to be a visceral experience.
My writing has been largely concerned with the depicting of Negro life in America.
When I'm dead, I want to be remembered as a musician of some worth and substance.
The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.
I write plays and poetry at the same time, and I'm always refining, but I'm not obsessive about it. It's what I like to do, what I've always wanted to do.
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