Chris Carter
Chris Carter
Visionary creator of the TV series The X-Files. He also went on to create three other series for Fox: Harsh Realm, Millennium, and The Lone Gunmen.
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth13 October 1957
CountryUnited States of America
jazz funk ifs
I love jazz and funk, because it's hard. If it's not hard, it's not worth doing.
trying want copies
When something original works, then everyone wants to copy it. But if you're trying to do something that no one's ever seen before it's frightening.
children hero men
I grew up a child of Watergate. It gave me a good dose of skepticism about authority. One of my favorite movies is 'All the President's Men.' Woodward and Bernstein, those guys were my heroes. I have a degree in journalism.
growing-up play fiction
I wasn't a big science-fiction fan growing up. But I loved Jules Verne and Sherlock Holmes. Both came into play on 'The X-Files.'
lying believe trust-no-one
You have these catch-phrases that you associate with 'The X-Files': 'Trust No One,' 'Deny Everything.' 'Believe the Lie' was one of them.
pressure
There's always the pressure to make the movie good.
character dark light
People thought the storyline and characters for 'X-Files' made it a 'dark' show, but I never saw it that way. I always thought Mulder and Scully were the light in dark places.
smart people scare
It's really hard to scare people on network television. You've got to be smart about it. You've got to parcel out the scares.
ocean japan whales
New Zealand totally rejects Japan's proposals to double the number of whales slaughtered in the Southern Ocean
both box business confidence customers entered good market successful twice
TI entered the set-top box market twice before and then, both times, withdrew when the business was not as good as they thought. Customers are going to want to have confidence that TI is going to be successful before they make a commitment.
disney helped movies needed pilot realise screen tv work
I got to do Disney Sunday movies. I got to do a TV pilot there. And it really helped me to realise that I needed to not just be a writer, but a producer, to see my work up on the screen the way I wanted it to look and play.
cannot characters fans fathom
Even if I see 300 'X-Files' fans together, I can't fathom - I cannot imagine - the audience itself. All I think about is the show and all I think about is why I like it and why I like to write it and why I like the characters and what I have to say through them.
producers
I think I've been asked a lot more than most TV producers to go on-camera. But I just do what I do and don't think about the package.
careful
I have to be careful with surfing. It's still an addiction to me. It's all I want to do, and that's the big dilemma I have with it.