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
Writers are opposite of athletes, they get better with age
Interpretation
This quote suggests that writers improve over time, unlike athletes whose performance declines as they age.
Aaron Sorkin's quote highlights the distinction between writers and athletes in terms of their development over time. While athletes often peak in their youth and may experience a decline as they age due to physical limitations, writers accumulate life experiences, knowledge, and skills that enhance their ability to create deeper and more profound works as they grow older. It suggests that wisdom and maturity contribute positively to a writer's craft.
In practice
In a book club discussion about the evolution of writing styles over the years.
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.
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.
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.
Swing is extreme coordination. It's a maintaining balance, equilibrium. It's about executing very difficult rhythms with a panache and a feeling in the context of very strict time. So, everything about the swing is about some guideline and some grid and the elegant way that you negotiate your way through that grid.
I have been given a lot of roles that are downtrodden, mammy-ish. A lot of lawyers or doctors who have names but absolutely no lives. You're going to get your three or four scenes; you're not going to be able to show what you can do.
With cold eyes and indifferent mind the spectators regard the work. Connoissers admire the "skill" (as one admires a tightrope walker), enjoy the "quality of painting" (as one enjoys a pasty). But hungry souls go hungry away. The vulgar herd stroll through the rooms and pronounce the pictures "nice" or "splendid." Those who could speak have said nothing, those who could hear have heard nothing.
The lovely thing about writing is, well, two things. One, writing fiction allows us to bring an order to our lives that doesn't exist in real life. And two, it allows us to create human characters that we know better than we will ever know anyone in real life.
I mean by a picture a beautiful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be - in a light better than any light that ever shone - in a land no one can define, or remember, only desire
If I've done my work well, I vanish completely from the scene. I believe it is invasive of the work when you know too much about the writer.
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