Damon Lindelof
Damon Lindelof
Damon Laurence Lindelofis an American television writer, producer, and film screenwriter, most noted as the co-creator and showrunner of the television series Lost. He has written for and produced Crossing Jordanand wrote for Nash Bridges. Lindelof also co-wrote the science fiction films Cowboys & Aliens, Prometheus, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Tomorrowland. He co-created the TV series The Leftovers for HBO, adapted from the novel by Tom Perrotta...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Producer
Date of Birth24 April 1973
CityTeaneck, NJ
CountryUnited States of America
Good twists are enormously hard to come by, and I think the best ones are earned ones. The idea that a story can take a left turn on you, it's easy to do, but it has to be done very, very carefully, or else you risk losing the audience's trust.
In television, I don't feel constraints. I feel a lot freedom to maneuver.
When I saw 'Blade Runner,' my understanding was that 'Blade Runner' and 'Alien' were sequels to each other - or they were related. They were set in the same world.
I think that, at the end of the day, I'm drawn to a certain level of ambiguous storytelling that requires hard thought and work in the same way that the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle does: Sometimes you just want to put it down or throw it out the window, but there's a real rewarding sense if you feel like you've cracked it.
A lot of writers whom I love, admire and call friends share this feeling, which is this fundamental idea that we're frauds. That we will be pushed out on to the stage, and it will be revealed that the emperor has no clothes.
My father - until the day that my dad died - didn't know how many points you scored in a touchdown. He could say there were nine innings in baseball, but no intricacies of the sport.
When someone says something in an interview, the beauty of Twitter is that it's a platform for instantaneous response.
We all look at ourselves in the mirror and think, 'Am I good?
The fundamental law of nature is to not know too much about yourself.
The fun thing about doing origin stories is you are introducing the audience to characters.
Anger is not a real feeling. Every time in my life I've ever been angry, it's because I was scared, or because I was sad and I didn't know it. Anger doesn't just come out of a vacuum.
I look at myself more as a storyteller than a screenwriter, as pretentious as that may sound, but that's what really attracts me to TED Talks. For me, the really effective ones are being presented by expert storytellers.
From my own internal fanboy perspective, there's nothing that I hate more than seeing a three minute trailer for a movie where I feel like it's shown me the entire movie.
As cliched as it sounds, if you have an original voice and an original idea, then no matter what anybody says, you have to find a way to tell that story.