Paul Will
Paul Will
accept age behave expression honor individual versus york
Once we accept violence as an adaptation, it makes sense that its expression is calibrated to the environment. The same individual will behave differently if he comes of age in Detroit, Mich., versus Windsor, Ontario; in New York in the 1980s versus New York now; in a culture of honor versus a culture of dignity.
fountain mostly written
I've always written by hand. Mostly with a fountain pen, but sometimes with a pencil - especially for corrections.
future hoping living
I'm living in the present, thinking about the past, hoping for the future.
future global health moved necessary people public stop thinks
What the American public thinks is very important to the future of global health. Many people are moved by the idea that there is unnecessary suffering in the world, and we could do a lot to stop it. We have the technologies necessary to stop most of the suffering.
bad cities illnesses lack multiple number people seek social
If you look at people who seek a lot of care in American cities for multiple illnesses, it's usually people with a number of overwhelming illnesses and a lot of social problems, like housing instability, unemployment, lack of insurance, lack of housing, or just bad housing.
american-poet ditch finds hills leaves maybe poet
But maybe it's up in the hills under the leaves or in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it's never found. But what you find, whatever you find, is always only part of the missing, and writing is the way the poet finds out what it is he found.
emotional filmmaker logical
Film is an emotional medium; it's not a logical medium. It's not an intellectual medium, so every decision you make as a filmmaker and an actor has to be emotional in some way, even in the rejection of logic.
characters create damaged drawn easy empathetic good guy strive sympathy
I am really drawn to damaged characters, and I have a lot of sympathy for them. Making those complicated characters empathetic is something to strive for. It's too easy to create a good guy or a good girl.
accept asking changed comment corners episode good producer questions wrote
I wrote an episode for 'thirtysomething,' and a producer said, 'That's really good, but what is it about? What does it say about you? What questions are you asking yourself?' I had never thought about that. This comment changed who I was, because it made me look at my own soul, the dark corners in my soul, and accept that dark side.
antsy people type
I'm such an antsy type of person. I can't write in a room without other people around. I write in coffee shops.
absolutely characters fears partly recognize single work
All my work is partly biographical. I mean, 'Crash' was absolutely that, absolutely. But you just wouldn't recognize me in most of those characters. But I was in every single one of those characters in 'Crash,' because those were all fears that I had felt. Things that I had thought in my deepest, darkest heart.
characters knowledge
You have to have empathy, knowledge and compassion for your characters if you're a writer.
near normal
In Scientology, in the Ethics Conditions, as you go down from Normal through Doubt, then you get to Enemy, and, finally, near the bottom, there is Treason.
guiding success
My one guiding rule for success in the film world would be, be careful of your friends.