Vince Gilligan
Vince Gilligan
George Vincent "Vince" Gilligan, Jr. is an American writer, producer, and director. He is known for his television work, specifically as creator, head writer, executive producer, and a director of Breaking Bad and its spin-off Better Call Saul. He was a writer and producer for The X-Files and was the co-creator of its spin-off The Lone Gunmen...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth10 February 1967
CityRichmond, VA
CountryUnited States of America
The last thing in the world that I would want to know, in my own life, is when I'm going to pass away.
People want what they want, for as long as they want it, then tastes change and something else works.
It's often the case with successful TV shows that they kind of inadvertently live on past their prime. It's best to leave the audience wanting more.
Having certain limits - not too many, but certain limits on an ability to tell a story - makes us work harder, me and my writers. Sometimes I watch a giant movie with a $250 million budget and I think they feel kind of bloated, and that if they'd been leaner and meaner they might've had better storytelling.
It's like that old expression: "Men plan and god laughs." You sort of see that in the television world, where you have an idea where things are heading and you have a plan and sort of start off in that general direction, but you wind up taking all these side paths and whatnot - if you're lucky.
I'm not a big internet guy - not because I'm not interested in what people have to say, but probably because I'm too interested.
I love cable, but not because you can show boobies and say the F-word. I love it because you have more time to think. That's the blessing of it.
I stay away from the internet as much as I can. Except for pornography.
I think that for me, as far as audience expectations and how you manage your anxiety, it helps to keep things in perspective.
If you’re too rigid in your thinking you may miss some wonderful opportunities for storytelling.
If religion is a reaction of man, and nothing more, it seems to me that it represents a human desire for wrongdoers to be punished. I hate the idea of Idi Amin living in Saudi Arabia for the last 25 years of his life. That galls me to no end. I feel some sort of need for biblical atonement, or justice, or something. I like to believe there is some comeuppance, that karma kicks in at some point, even if it takes years or decades to happen. My girlfriend says this great thing that’s become my philosophy as well. 'I want to believe there's a heaven. But I can't not believe there's a hell.'
I wanna keep being productive and creative.
It's weird how with a TV show, you don't have just the one ending - you have the many.
Let the audience put 2 and 2 together so that it comes up with 4. Let them do that themselves, and they'll love you forever.