Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an American screenwriter, producer, and playwright. His works include the Broadway plays A Few Good Men and The Farnsworth Invention; the television series Sports Night, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and The Newsroom; and the films A Few Good Men, The American President, Charlie Wilson's War, The Social Network, Moneyball, and Steve Jobs...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth9 June 1961
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Honestly, I don't try to guess at what most people want. I don't think I'd guess right, and I just think that that's not a good recipe for storytelling. I try to write what I like, what I think my friends would like.
I think it's up to writers to write stuff that is compelling enough that people want to watch.
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.
Government should be a place where people can come together, and no one gets left behind. No one…gets left behind. An instrument of good.
This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.
People who don't know anything tend to make up fake rules, the real rules being considerably more difficult to learn.
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.
I have a lot of respect for people who are great at ad-libbing, and for writers and directors who are able to create a scene in which that works.
As an audience member, I like the sound of something that's been written - I like it to sound written. And then, of course, you can't do it without the musicians who can play it.
That's a very real feeling - that I don't have a story to tell. I'm not a pure storyteller. I have a tough time with story.
The downside to series television is that the schedule is ferocious. It constantly feels like you have a midterm due that you haven't started yet.
If you can socialize from the privacy of your desk at night in a dark room, you can be a smoother, cooler, funnier, sexy, more everything person than you actually are in real life.
When I write something, I want the best director to direct it. And that's not going to be me.
Just to clarify the division of labor on the show, I write the show and Alan [Poul] does everything else.