Quotes by Michael Hirst - Page 1

I only have one idol: John Lennon.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Idols
Lennon
Idol
Copy Quote
First episodes are difficult things to write.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Difficult Things
Episodes
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I think comedy is the hardest actual form of writing there is.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Comedy
Thinking
Writing
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People love cliches. If you can give people cliches, that's very good TV, then.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Love Good People
Cliches
Copy Quote
It works better if your lead character is complex and interesting and not perfect.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Character
Interesting
Not Perfect
Perfect
Better Character Your
Complex
Lead Character
Copy Quote
When I did 'The Tudors,' there was massive information available and a ready-made market.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Available
Massive
Ready-Made
Copy Quote
With 'Vikings,' I had the task of making these people interesting and, to a point, sympathetic.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Sympathetic
Task
Copy Quote
If you're in America or Europe, walk for three blocks, and you'll pass about 14 Vikings. Their reach was immense.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Immense
Blocks
Copy Quote
Nobody knows what really happened in any historical period. There are some periods where we know more than others, though.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Historical
Periods
Copy Quote
I'm very bad at delegating writing responsibilities, because I've never been able to do it; I've never had any help or looked for any help.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Responsibilities
Copy Quote
Once I engage in something, I really engage in it, and I love the process of reading and researching because I come from an academic background.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Love
Age
Academic
Reading
Background
Engage
Researching
Copy Quote
'Downton Abbey' is just one cliche after another, and it is a really, really poor piece of drama. But that's only me talking. That's just my take on it.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Abbey
Just One
Downton Abbey
Copy Quote
I couldn't give 'Vikings' away - I mean, I love these people. And I'm not sure anyone else writing it would necessarily have the same feeling towards the characters that I do.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Anyone Else
Copy Quote
The American obsession with 'Downton' amuses me slightly because it's such a fiction. I've always been questioned about my historical veracity, and 'Downton' just flies past, when it's completely made up.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Historical
Obsession
Veracity
Flies
Me Past Always
Questioned
Slightly
Copy Quote
With 'The Tudors,' I had a huge amount of material, I mean so many books and so much stuff about what they really said. So, in a way it was kind of trying to strip it out and find the stories inside all this material.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Way Find Trying
Huge Amount
Strip
Copy Quote
My instinct is to absolutely recoil when talking about writing in a mechanistic way. Nothing could be dumber than writing a film or TV script based on prescriptions, on other peoples' ideas of what character should be.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Instinct
Recoil
Dumber
Copy Quote
I wasn't setting out to write a documentary; if I had, I would have done it in a completely different way. I was asked to write a drama that would appeal to a big audience in America that had no knowledge or interest in The Tudors at all.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Setting
Appeal
Documentary
Copy Quote
For 'Vikings,' we have to do so much outside shooting, and it's normally - I think with American shows, it'll be 60 or 70 percent inside and a little bit outside, but with us, it's almost 70 percent outside, and that's huge and really difficult.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Shooting
Normally
Copy Quote
People offer me loads of stuff, and some of it I like, but I just can't do it because I can't write it all. So I might get in the position where I have some sort of company and just write maybe the first episode, but these are love projects, in a way.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Projects
Love Me People
Episode
Loads
Copy Quote
You have to create characters - certainly in series TV - who people engage with. They don't have to be nice; you don't have to agree with them. But they do have to be compulsively watchable and believable and human, and you want to know what happens to them.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Agree
Believable
Be Nice
Copy Quote
TV drama - not always, but on the whole - were pretty appalling and very secondary, too. No one expected it to be like watching a movie; that was the point. But I think when you start watching 'Vikings,' it is like watching a movie - you're taken somewhere else.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Drama
Expected
Somewhere Else
Taken
Tv
Appalling
Somewhere
Secondary
Copy Quote
I've found that using historical material and being rooted in historical material is liberating because I always think to myself, 'Well, this actually happened, and this is fantastic!' That's why I don't like fantasy, in a way. Because it's sort of in emptiness.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Emptiness
Fantastic
Fantasy
Historical
Liberating
Rooted
Myself Always Way
Myself Way Always
Copy Quote
The Vikings certainly didn't write anything about themselves; it was not a literate, but rather a pagan, culture. So what we get was written later by Christian monks. But there were occasional reportings and recordings of people who had traded usually with the Vikings.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Occasional
Pagan
Literate
Monks
Recordings
Traded
Copy Quote
Everything in 'The Tudors' is initially based on my historical research, and the fact is that the most unlikely scenes were the ones which were probably most based on reality. I prefer to be as real as possible, and there is so much of that story that you just can't make up.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Historical
Unlikely
Initially
Make Up
Copy Quote
I felt that a lot of Viking culture had been caricatured and misconstrued. After all, they were far more democratic than the Saxons and the Francs, who were exercising really hierarchical social structures at that time. The Vikings had popular meetings where everything could be discussed.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Discussed
Exercising
Hierarchical
Copy Quote
Of course I had written a film about Elizabeth I, and I loved the Tudor period, and I think at the time Working Title and I had debated on whether to do Elizabeth I or Henry VIII. I'd always wanted to do Henry VIII. Like Elizabeth, I'd had this feeling that it had never properly been addressed.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Time Always Never
Debated
Period
Elizabeth
Henry
Properly
Title
Copy Quote
When you're making a TV drama, the showrunner is God, and so however onerous and difficult and consuming that responsibility is, you're being treated with respect, so it changes your whole outlook to the production. You're being asked about costumes, set design, music, every aspect of the show.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Aspect
Consuming
Costumes
Outlook
Copy Quote
I got interested in the Vikings, and then you realize that there isn't much to be read about them because they did not write their history. It was written by hostile witnesses, by Christian monks and so on. From what I could see and understand, I was really excited about it. I loved their culture and loved their gods.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Hostile
Monks
Witnesses
Copy Quote
The key for me with historical characters is they're interesting because they're human beings. A little bit of Hemingway goes a long way here, but journalists and writers should honestly look at their material and have a real interest, a real passion in what they want to write, and they should also have a lot of knowledge as well.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Honestly
Long Way
Hemingway
Journalists
Real Passion
Copy Quote
When you're a screenwriter working on a film, you're not really even welcome on set, even if you know... When I wrote 'Elizabeth' and Shekhar Kapur was a friend of mine, but I wasn't really welcome on set, because the director is God and it's a very difficult position for a screenwriter who's put so much passion into that, into the writing.
Michael Hirst / Screenwriter
Welcome
Elizabeth
Screenwriter
Copy Quote

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Michael Hirst Quotes - Page 1

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