I want to have compassion for my characters - I feel like I am the characters when I'm writing them. Mike White More Quotes by Mike White More Quotes From Mike White A flower doesn't love you or hate you, it just exists. Mike White hateflowerlove-you My impulse is to create an aesthetic that's about a humanistic approach to a world and trying to create compassion for all the characters. Mike White compassiontryingcharacter I used to go online all the time, and then I had to stop myself... because I'm a writer, and it's like: to have a procrastination tool, like, within my computer... it was just getting too hairy. Mike White computerprocrastinationtools I actually think it's helped me as a writer to have to act. It's only when you actually start putting yourself out that you appreciate the anxiety that comes with having to try to sell a line, or with trying to own a character. Mike White appreciatecharacterthinking I started out writing when I was young; stuff about exposing the truth about how people are not what they appear, about how they are much more dysfunctional than they seem. Pulling back the curtain - that felt smart. But as I got older, exposing how frail people can be seems less and less deep. Mike White smartwritingpeople I find as a viewer, when I go to see comedies, the strain to be funny throughout the whole thing. I start to lose my sense of reality, and it ends up feeling like an empty experience; there's funny stuff in it but I've lost the emotional connection to the characters because it's just so bananas. Mike White emotionalcharacterreality From my experience, meditating can bring up the most stressful thoughts. Mike White meditatingstressful People don't go to see things in the theater for the same reasons that I do. And movies are about mass audiences. And so moviegoers are going for a different kind of drug than for a certain kind of literary quality. Mike White qualitydrugpeople I don't feel the breath of a thousand people over my shoulder. Mike White shouldersthousandpeople I don't even give my scripts to friends because I just feel it's, like, I don't need one more set of opinions. Mike White scriptsgivingneeds I think living in our culture right now, there's a universal experience where we feel like we become what we do. Sometimes that's rewarding and sometimes that creates an existential crisis. Mike White existentialismculturethinking I feel like so much of my life is about a conversation I'm having with myself. I do interact with other people, but often I'm more interested in what I'm learning in the relationship I have with myself. Mike White life-isconversationpeople There's a victory in letting go of your expectations. Mike White victoryexpectationsletting-go I believe, in general, that even people that are self-pitying, you can feel for them. Mike White selfbelievepeople As you get older, you realize just figuring out how to be nice to the people in your personal sphere is almost more challenging than trying to change the bigger culture. Mike White nicechallengespeople For me, writing is a solitary thing and a personal thing. And it's weird, because when you make something that requires money and collaborators, you have to talk about them. I don't enjoy that part of it. I still want to keep it to myself. Mike White enjoywantwriting You feel a little weird, as a writer of scripted television for many years, to say you're a fan of reality TV. You feel like a traitor. But I am a total fan. Mike White fansrealityyears I used to have a road-rage issue. Mike White issuesrageused Sometimes when you write something on the page, it can seem very funny, but when you act it out - and this happens to me a lot, actually - the melancholy of the situation becomes more front and center. Mike White pageswritingsometimes People who write books - they live in their own world as they're writing. But people who are doing shows or big movies - not only are you writing this world that you're living in, but you're also simultaneously running a circus, and you can kind of start losing your mind like that. Mike White writingrunningbook
