Any story worth telling relates to real life in some meaningful way. Scifi allows you to tell meaningful stories without seeming too preachy - it adds a metaphorical layer between the story and the real world. Scifi is dismissed as ungrounded fluff, but it's actually the opposite.

Jane Espenson

Categorized in : Meaningful Opposites Real

If we can't write diversity into sci-fi, then what's the point? You don't create new worlds to give them all the same limits of the old ones.

Jane Espenson

diversity writing giving

I think we should all start worrying about being downloaded and put in robots.

Jane Espenson

robots worry thinking

You are full of love. You love with all of your soul. It's brighter than the fire ... blinding. That's why you pull away from it ... Love is pain ... Love ... give ... forgive. Risk the pain. It is your nature.

Jane Espenson

pain love-you love-is

I saw it on the Twitter of today, on the online boards. There was a huge amount of negative reaction that's been forgotten because the quality eventually shined through. But usually it takes people a while to see what they've got on their plate. And I think, with "Jessica Jones," it's this anomalous thing where, and because of the original property being so good, people saw it right away, which is very unusual.

Jane Espenson

quality people thinking

Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence. Think about it. People aren't out to get you, they're just stupid.

Jane Espenson

stupid people thinking

Luck is opportunity plus preparation plus luck.

Jane Espenson

preparation luck opportunity

I recently had to wait two and a half hours in a doctor's office, just waiting to be seen. I literally was genuinely thinking 'Well, maybe this is a time loop.'

Jane Espenson

doctors two thinking

I think people look back on shows like "Firefly" or "Buffy," and they remember it with this glow about it of positive response, but if you look back... If Twitter had existed, there would have been a lot of negative tweeting about "Firefly."

Jane Espenson

firefly people thinking

It is possible to care too much. It is possible to believe that you will never be as good as anyone else. And it is possible to let these things take over.

Jane Espenson

care too-much believe

Mercy is the mark of a great man! (stabs defeated opponent) I guess I'm just a good man. (stabs opponent again) Well ... I'm alright.

Jane Espenson

good-man opponents men

Melissa [ Rosenberg] really has mastered coming from character. Everything radiates from the characters in this work. You don't feel like anything's imposed.

Jane Espenson

melissa feels character

I watch a lot of TV, but I find that recently it's largely oddball stuff. Scripted stuff sometimes feels like homework, like I'm scoping out the competition or something.

Jane Espenson

competition stuff watches

Movies are always made by committees, and the writer is not at the head of the committee. Thus, mush.

Jane Espenson

committees made

I hope I am pigeonholed with comedy. I'm really not interested in writing the darker stuff, the emotional stuff.

Jane Espenson

emotional stuff writing

If something needed to be written, if something needed to be polished, needed to be re-written, I was just handed pages.

Jane Espenson

polished pages needed

In the case of judges, I wouldn't be shocked to find out the number on television exceeds the number in real life — what is it about those black robes that makes us think ovaries?

Jane Espenson

real numbers thinking

The outside world is what kept Buffy and Angel from being together.

Jane Espenson

angel together world

We had all been feeling this, about the Buffy/Riley relationship. It never had the fire that Buffy/Angel did. It wasn't really meant to.

Jane Espenson

angel fire feelings

I know I'm not great at structure and story.

Jane Espenson

structure stories knows

Forgive my rudeness. I cannot abide useless people.

Jane Espenson

forgiving useless people