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If a scene is longer than three pages, it better be for a good reason.

Alan Ball

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Alan Ball
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: May 13
Director
Executive Producer
Film Director
Film Producer
Playwright
Screenwriter
Showrunner
Television Producer
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
Alan Erwin Ball
Pages
Scene
Longer
Three
Reason
Better
Good

More quotes by Alan Ball

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I think all writers are armchair psychologists to some degree or another, and I think a character's sexuality is fascinating. It's a great way to really get at the root of their identity, because it's such a personal thing.
Alan Ball
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I need to feel like the work I'm doing is not necessarily important, but meaningful, at least to me, because otherwise it just becomes a day job. It just becomes factory work and I get really frustrated.
Alan Ball
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Never underestimate the power of denial.
Alan Ball
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A lot of times, the choice of the right song will save a scene. Or there will be a scene that's a little flat and you put in the right song and somehow it just comes alive.
Alan Ball
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As a writer, it's fun to create. And once you get into a long-running show with very established characters and a very established tone and format, after a while it's a really great job, but that's what it is - a job.
Alan Ball
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I certainly believe that what we perceive as humans is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't necessarily believe in vampires or werewolves or that kind of thing, but I believe there is definitely a realm we don't necessarily have access to.
Alan Ball
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I'd seen 'Interview with A Vampire' and saw Dracula movies growing up, but I never thought, 'I love vampires I have to do a show about vampires.'
Alan Ball
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Happy relationships are boring. We all want them in our own life. But I don't want to watch them on TV.
Alan Ball
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I'm from the South, so while I personally find it impossible to live there, I still have a fondness for it as a geographical region.
Alan Ball
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Well, here's the thing with relationships on 'True Blood': Once they happen then you have to throw a monkey-wrench into them, because to have people be happy is not that exciting.
Alan Ball
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I think the world is a place for oddballs and freaks. I'm only interested in oddballs and freaks as characters.
Alan Ball
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Vampires are total sexual metaphors there's just no way around that.
Alan Ball
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Not everything is going to be successful. To strive for that is really naive. You just do the best you can do.
Alan Ball
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I am so spoiled. I cannot watch a show where it gets interrupted for ads. I have to TiVo it and skip through the ads, because the culture of advertising is so false and phony that I just... ugh, you know?
Alan Ball
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I'm not like J.K. Rowling, where I know there's going to be this number of seasons, and I know exactly what's going to happen. I would be so bored if that was the case. There would be no journey. There would be nothing to discover.
Alan Ball
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I am a little suspicious of industry paradigms. I feel like so many movies and TV shows feel so familiar because of over-reliance on these paradigms.
Alan Ball
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Death is a companion for all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we're aware of it or not, and it's not necessarily a terrible thing.
Alan Ball
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When I go home, the last thing I want to do is read about the popular lore of vampires.
Alan Ball
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I think sexuality is a window into someone's soul.
Alan Ball
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The difference between film and TV is the pace. You don't have the leisure of time in television.
Alan Ball