We have two boys, and one of our kids is much more interested in history and stories, so if you want him to do some calculations about lenses, you would start talking to him about Galileo... Then he would be into the lenses, but if you just start talking to him about lenses, he might not stay with you.
For me, it's always about the work and the stories I'm telling and the slices of life I feel should be illuminated.
I'm definitely drawn to stories about outsiders. Feeling like that myself as a gay black man, I often seek to give a voice to those in the world who don't have one.
I've always had a great affection for espionage stories. I like weaving them, and I like thrillers.
There are so many stories to tell in the worlds of science fiction, the worlds of fantasy and horror that to confine yourself to even doing historical revisionist fiction, whatever you want to call it - mash-ups, gimmick lit, absurdist fiction - I don't know if I want to do that anymore.
As long as I can remember, I've been writing - first poems, then stories, and by my early teenage years I was also in love with sailing.
I've seen music and songs used in stories, and while sometimes it works really well, often it doesn't.
Scientists have no agreed theory of the origin of life - plenty of scenarios, conjectures and just-so stories, but nothing with solid experimental support.
Showing young children in these communities, that there are outlets for their feelings, that there is room in a space for their stories to be told, and that they will be applauded - and it's not about ego, it's about connection: that their pain is everybody else's pain.
I have heard repeated stories of meth users leaving their children unattended for days as they cook, use and then sleep off the intense effects of methamphetamine.
There is a common theme, though, in the stories I have told, which are usually associations of characters or families that are formed outside of a family circle.
People started saying I was ignoring my country, making up stories about me. Ludicrous things, like that I throw tea on my assistants.
Epidemiologists study patterns in order to combat infection. Stories about epidemics follow patterns, too. Stories aren't often deadly, but they can be virulent: spreading fast, weakening resistance, wreaking havoc.
My older brother and I read all the time. My father read, but only things related to religion. One year, he did read a set of stories that was called something like '365 Stories' out loud to us. They followed a family for the year, a page a day. They were about kids with simple problems - like a wheel coming off their bicycle.
Young writers only take off when they find their subjects. Since almost everyone has a family and stories about family, that is often a place to start.
The first syndicating I tried was when two partners and I created a production company in 1952. We wanted to syndicate famous Bible stories and sell them for $25 a show.
The American formula things are out there but they don't have any stories to tell - we have all the stories to tell - but they're all formula.
I have some shorter stories coming out in other books early next year. I might be pitching a re-vamp of Ghost Rider in the spring. We'll see.
Short stories are often strong meat. Reading them, even listening to them, can be challenging, by which I do not mean hard work, simply that a certain amount of nerve and maturity is required.
My friends and family have always been extremely supportive, but the support I've received from fans has been so overwhelming. I love hearing all of their 'Fight Song' stories; I have been so inspired by so many of them.
I think until Britain acknowledges just how much of a presence black people had here before the Sixties, then there are certain stories that are not going to be inclusive of what I have to offer.
To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.
I want to write a book of poetry, as well as children's stories.
Although humor is present in every one of my films, it has always been used as a way to make the darker, heavier stuff in my stories more palatable. I never set out to make 'Humpday' a comedy.
I've read short stories that are as dense as a 19th century novel and novels that really are short stories filled with a lot of helium.
One of the things I find exciting about Joan of Arc is how clearly the story of her life reveals the creation of myth, a process in which every one of us is involved - every one of us who tells stories and all those who listen, each informing the other.
I spent a lot of my childhood in my own head, making up stories. I didn't have a lot of outside influences, so I was able to make my own decisions about what I wanted to do.
When I was a teenager, 'Playboy' was the most interesting magazine in the world, and not just for the playmates. I liked the interviews and the stories, and all that, but nowadays most of the stuff in there doesn't interest me.
God invented mankind because he loved silly stories.
An attack upon our ability to tell stories is not just censorship - it is a crime against our nature as human beings.
I love telling stories. I love the intimacy between the writer and reader. When you write sketches it's over in two minutes. When you write a book the characters have to have a bit of emotional depth.
How we experience memory sometimes, it's not linear. We're not telling the stories to ourselves. We know the story; we're just seeing it in flashes overlaid.
People in the news media after I got caught said how could you have not caught this guy? He had 50 corrections in four years. That's a lot of corrections. Well what they failed to look at is how many stories there were and out of 700 plus stories, 50 corrections is not a high amount.
'Star Trek' is a 'Wagon Train' concept - built around characters who travel to worlds 'similar' to our own, and meet the action-adventure-drama which become our stories. Their transportation is the cruiser 'S.S. Yorktown,' performing a well-defined and long-range Exploration-Science-Security mission which helps create our format.
With 'Titanic,' you have all the first-class passengers interwoven with wonderful stories about the maids and the engineers, the people downstairs in the galleys.
Country music's really good about telling a story, so I want songs that tell good stories where people can say, 'That happened to me!'
