Aaron Sorkin Quotes

Aaron Sorkin is a highly acclaimed screenwriter and playwright known for his sharp dialogue and captivating storytelling. He has penned renowned works such as "The West Wing," "The Social Network," and "A Few Good Men." Sorkin's distinctive writing style and thought-provoking narratives have earned him numerous awards and recognition in the world of film and television.

I do not diminish the incredible symbolic importance of a black man getting elected president. But my euphoria was a smart guy getting elected president. Maybe for the first time in my lifetime we had elected one of the thousand smartest Americans president.

Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writ... -Aaron Sorkin

Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.

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.

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.

I can't remember my dreams more than a couple of seconds after I wake up. It's frustrating because sometimes I dream that I'm watching a really good movie.

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.

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.

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.

Whether it's 'The West Wing' or anything else, my ... -Aaron Sorkin

Whether it's 'The West Wing' or anything else, my first thought is always, 'What's a good story?'

I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I re... -Aaron Sorkin

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

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.

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

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.

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.'

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.

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.

If you lined up 10 writers and asked them to write a movie about Steve Jobs, you'd get 10 very different movies.

I'm not sophisticated when it comes to politics, w... -Aaron Sorkin

I'm not sophisticated when it comes to politics, when it comes to journalism.

Discovering the context

The speaker admits to not having a high level of knowledge or expertise in politics and journalism.

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.

Writing never comes easy. The difference between Page 2 and Page Nothing is the difference between life and death.

All my heroes wore coats and ties to work. What happened to men wearing hats? Maybe I should bring back hats.

The rules of drama are very much separate from the properties of life. I think that's especially true of Shakespeare.

When I wrote 'The West Wing,' the juice behind it was that in popular culture, our leaders in government are generally portrayed as Machiavellian, or as idiots. I thought, well, how about writing about a group of hyper-competent people?

My way of getting the best from people on a set is to notice their work, to make every prop master, every seamstress, part of 'The Newsroom' or 'The West Wing' or 'Steve Jobs.'

I find television, and particularly live television, very romantic: the idea that there is this small group of people, way up high, in a skyscraper in the middle of Manhattan, beaming this signal out into the night.

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.

We're about to shoot an episode on Air Force One, for instance, and we're going to take liberties, small liberties, with Air Force One, as we take small liberties with our White House set.

I think socializing on the Internet is to socializ... -Aaron Sorkin

I think socializing on the Internet is to socializing what reality TV is to reality.

A song in a musical works best when a character has to sing - when words won't do the trick anymore. The same idea applies to a long speech in a play or a movie or on television. You want to force the character out of a conversational pattern.

Don't try to guess what it is people want and give it to them. Don't ask for a show of hands. Try your best to write what you like, what you think your friends would like and what you think your father would like and then cross your fingers... The most valuable thing you have is your own voice.

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