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"41 Aaron Sorkin Quotes & Sayings

      American     /     View profile
Born: 9 June 1961 | Screenwriter | Director | Producer | Playwright |

You know, one of the things I like about this world, or at least I like about the way we're presenting this world, is these issues are terribly complicated - not nearly as black and white as we're led to believe.

Issues Terribly Black White
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A news organization has a much different responsibility. I might not be telling you the whole story. I might not be telling you a story in a manner that is properly sophisticated.

Different Manner Might Much
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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.

About Any Anything Day
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Certainly, last year we did an episode about the census and sampling versus a direct statistic. You just said the word 'census,' and people fall asleep.

About Asleep Census Certainly
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Our responsibility is to captivate you for however long we've asked for your attention. That said, there is tremendous drama to be gotten from the great, what you would say, heavy issues.

Asked Attention Drama Gotten
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It's important to remember that, first and foremost, if not only, this is entertainment. 'The West Wing' isn't meant to be good for you.

Entertainment First Foremost Good
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It's populated by people who, by and large, have terrific communication skills. Every day is an extraordinary day. For me, it was just a great area for storytelling.

Area Communication Communication Skills Day
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There really isn't a story that you can't tell inside of it. It's very much a clearinghouse for anything that goes on in the world. So you're not at all limited.

Anything Goes Inside Limited
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There's a great tradition in storytelling that's thousands of years old, telling stories about kings and their palaces, and that's really what I wanted to do

About Great Kings Old
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Well, I must tell you I write the scripts very close to the bone. So I'm writing episode seven now and couldn't tell you what happens in episode eight.

Bone Close Eight Episode
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Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.

Borrow Good Great Other
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I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection.

About Beyond Dialogue Drama
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Trying to guess what the (mass) audience wants and then trying to satisfy that is usually a bad recipe for getting something good.

Audience Bad Getting Good
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But HBO is less interested in how many people are watching than in how much the people who are watching are liking the show. They didn't set up their business model to make writers happy. It's just a nice unintended consequence.

Business Business Model Consequence Happy
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Decisions are made by those who show up.
Decisions Made Show Those
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Don't ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world, it's the only thing that ever has.

Change Change The World Ever Forget
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It seems to me that more and more we've come to expect less and less from each other, and I think that should change.

Change Come Each Expect
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And my friends, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Friends Nothin Seen You
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It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.

Being Combination Dumb Life
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There are some screw-ups headed your way. I wish I could tell you that there was a trick to avoiding the screw-ups... but they're coming for ya. It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.

Avoiding Being Combination Coming
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I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white, and it says, 'You may have fooled some of the people some of the time, but those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent, and I'm not your mommy; I'm a white piece of paper. You wanna dance with me?' and I really, really don't. I'll go peaceable-like.

Agent Dance Days Fooled
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I am all for everyone having a voice; I just don't think everyone has earned the microphone. And that's what the Internet has done.

Am Done Earned Everyone
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I think socializing on the Internet is to socializing what reality TV is to reality

I Think Internet Reality Reality TV
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I am truly at my happiest not when I am writing an aria for an actor or making a grand political or social point. I am at my happiest when I've figured out a fun way for somebody to slip on a banana peel.

Actor Am Banana Figured
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I don't have a great instrument. I don't have the kind of ungodly control over my voice and body that great actors have. And I've worked with enough great actors to know that I'm not one.

Actor Body Control Enough
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My parents took me to see plays, starting from when I was very little. Oftentimes, I was too young to understand. I don't know what my parents were thinking - 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' when I was eight years old, that kind of thing. So lots of times, I didn't understand what was going on, but I just loved the sound of dialogue.

Afraid Dialogue Eight Going
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I've loved every minute I've spent in television. And I've had much more failure, as traditionally measured, than success in television. I've done four shows, and only one of them was the 'West Wing.'

Done Every Failure Four
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When a movie is being rolled out, the studio publicists and all our individual publicists get together and come up with bullet points and talking points - 'Make sure you stay away from this,' and 'Don't say that quite that way, because that quote can be taken out of context,' and that kind of thing.

Away Because Being Bullet
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If I am writing a movie and I am stuck, I can call the studio and tell them it's delayed. You can't do that with television - you have air dates to meet.

Air Am Call Dates
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I spend most of my days pacing around, muttering that I have no ideas, feeling like I'm walking a plank.

Around Days Feeling Ideas
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If the characters on 'The West Wing' were watching a TV show wherein a character like Trump was leading in the polls, they wouldn't find it believable.

Believable Character Characters Find
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The properties of people and the properties of character have almost nothing to do with each other. They really don't. I know it seems like they do because we look alike, but people don't speak in dialogue. Their lives don't unfold in a series of scenes that form a narrative arc.

Alike Almost Almost Nothing Arc
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The rules of drama are very much separate from the properties of life. I think that's especially true of Shakespeare.

Drama I Think Life Much
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I've got plenty of quirks. I go to an office early in the morning. Early in the morning is really good writing time. I take anywhere between six to eight showers a day. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not a germaphobe: it's all about a fresh start.

About Anywhere Between Day
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Not all paintings are abstract; they're not all Jackson Pollock. There's value in a photograph of a man alone on a boat at sea, and there is value in painting of a man alone on a boat at sea. In the painting, the painting has more freedom to express an idea, more latitude in being able to elicit certain emotion.

Able Abstract Alone Being
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When I write something, I want the best director to direct it. And that's not going to be me. So when David Fincher comes along and wants to direct 'The Social Network,' when Bennett Miller comes along and wants to direct 'Moneyball,' or when Danny Boyle wants to direct 'Jobs'? Hallelujah. I want them directing it.

Along Best Danny David
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While I was doing 'The Newsroom,' I always had the news on on different networks on different TVs around my house and around my office.

Always Around Different Doing
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The first thing I wrote was a one-act play that got accepted at a one-act play festival, and I was in it along with Nathan Lane and a couple of other very good actors.

Accepted Actor Along Couple
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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.

Behind Better Camera Cast
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I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue.

Consider Dialogue Necessary Plot
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Television is a visual medium. You have to create some kind of visual interest. And it's entertainment for your eyes.
Create Entertainment Eyes Interest
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Aaron Sorkin Quotes & Sayings