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I find the best way to make things real is to just put two characters into a space and let them talk to each other in the way that they would talk to each other, and then see what they would say. I know it sounds weird, but that leads the plot and takes you in another direction.

Steven Knight

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Steven Knight
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: August 5
Executive Producer
Film Director
Screenwriter
Birmingham
West Midlands
Best
Characters
Find
Takes
Real
Talk
Way
Space
Plot
Make
Sound
Leads
Things
Another
Weird
Would
Two
Sounds
Character
Direction

More quotes by Steven Knight

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There [in Allied] was depicting London in the war, as well, and doing that in a way where you see something that you don't normally see, which is how hedonistic it was. In reality, that's what was going on. But, all of it worked.
Steven Knight
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It's always good to have a world that people don't know about - a world that hasn't yet been done. It's like treading on fresh snow. You're the first one there.
Steven Knight
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I've spent three hours with Snoop Dogg, talking about how he loved [Peaky Blinders series]. And David Bowie loved it. The late Leonard Cohen was a fan. It struck a chord with various people that I didn't think it would.
Steven Knight
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Whenever I see a cut of a film and something is gone, I don't notice it unless it obviously should have been kept.
Steven Knight
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East India Company weren't an evil organization that went around deliberately oppressing people, but they were driven by profit, and how familiar is that now?
Steven Knight
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I wouldn't put myself in that bracket, but it's one of those things. I think what helps is that we [with Tom Hardey] don't socialize, we don't really know each other, we purely work together.
Steven Knight
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Snoop [Dog] said [Peaky Blinders] reminded him of how he got involved with gang culture. It's always fantastically flattering when I see people dress like that and take on the look.
Steven Knight
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I didn't direct [the Taboo episodes]. I wrote all of them.
Steven Knight
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There were three options [in Allied], which were for [Bred Pitt] to shoot [Marion Cotillard], for them to escape, or for her to pull the trigger, which is a heroic act to spare him. When I was thinking about how it would end, a long time ago, I think I tried each of them to see, but two of them did not work.
Steven Knight
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When you're watching, I find two things happen. You either watch a film and it's really good and then you think, Why can't I do that? Or you watch a film and it's not good, and you think, Why am I doing this? So either way, it feels like being at work.
Steven Knight
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With any period piece I think the thing to do is forget that it's not contemporary when you're writing and to have the characters feel as much as possible like characters that you would know.
Steven Knight
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Suddenly, after years of television being the poor relation and film being everything, it now feels like film is a conjuring trick. It's like, Oh, my god, how are you going to do that in 90 minutes, as opposed to eight hours?! I've got so little time to do this! It becomes an art form, in itself. Doing both helps you do each one.
Steven Knight
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I don't think that jealousy and love and hate and anger and all those things have changed in the past 200 years - people just express themselves differently.
Steven Knight
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I think the East India Company represents what we would think of as a very modern approach to the world where everything was counted, every penny was counted.
Steven Knight
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I think it creates so many more opportunities and pitfalls in that you are treading on fresh snow, so you're in a new place.
Steven Knight
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I must have been about 11 when I read the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which I read, over and over again.
Steven Knight
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With FX in particular, they've been fantastic and were really hands off. I mean, it helps that you've got Ridley Scott on your side.
Steven Knight
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[Allied] meant to be a film that's a bit different. It's roots are in the '40s and '50s, and that sort of filmmaking style.
Steven Knight
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If you've read something brilliant, it's good. It's good to look out the window and see what's going on in the world.
Steven Knight
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When Brad [Pitt] responded [to Allied], suddenly what was impossible became possible, which was great. But along the way, whenever I told the story, it had an affect on people. At its core, this was an effective story.
Steven Knight