If you're good at something, never do it for free. Jonathan Nolan More Quotes by Jonathan Nolan More Quotes From Jonathan Nolan You're different. You're more perfect. Time is three things for most people, but for you, for us, just one. A singularity. One moment. This moment. Like you're the center of the clock, the axis on which the hands turn. Time moves about you but never moves you. It has lost its ability to affect you. What is it they say? That time is theft? But not for you. Close your eyes and you can start all over again. Conjure up that necessary emotion, fresh as roses. Jonathan Nolan axes eye moving Everybody is waiting for the end to come, but what if it already passed us by? What if the final joke of Judgment Day was that it had already come and gone and we were none the wiser? Apocalypse arrives quietly; the chosen are herded off to heaven, and the rest of us, the ones who failed the test, just keep on going, oblivious. Dead already, wandering around long after the gods have stopped keeping score, still optimistic about the future. Jonathan Nolan optimistic waiting long I don't think anyone really understands why a show works or why it doesn't. Jonathan Nolan thinking We live in a moment in history in which our privacy may not be important. Jonathan Nolan privacy important may Time eventually convinces most of us that forgiveness is a virtue. Conveniently, cowardice and forgiveness look identical at a certain distance. Jonathan Nolan distance virtue looks I always love it best when you have a project where there is this commingling of the subject matter and the way in which you're recording that subject matter. Jonathan Nolan projects matter way One of the things with our show is posing a lot of questions, but getting a lot of answers too. Jonathan Nolan None of us like violence in the real world, but we're fascinated with it onscreen. Jonathan Nolan violence real world One of my first experiences with the space program was with the memorial that was built for the Challenger. When I was in 7th grade my entire class spent the entire school year preparing to launch a spaceship all together. We all had our different jobs that we had to learn how to do, we learned the math that you needed, we learned the practical skills that you needed, and I thought that was really cool. So I think that if you can take a tragedy and find the gold in it and turn it into something positive, that's great. Jonathan Nolan math jobs school We are the only instrument for understanding the universe. We have to ground it in human beings. Jonathan Nolan instruments understanding humans The thing about working on a TV show is that it becomes, very quickly, all consuming. Jonathan Nolan tv-shows tvs shows I was struck by - Einstein's a fascinating figure who didn't have any instruments that he used, he didn't use telescopes, he used his mind to try to understand the universe. Jonathan Nolan use mind trying When J.J. [Abrams] called Lisa [Joy] and myself, he pitched us this idea of, what if we turn the structure around and started with the hosts. For us, that gave us a way to play with everything that we're interested in, all at once. It's the ultimate playground for us because we deal with questions about artificial intelligence, which is something I've long been fascinated by, but also human intelligence, or the lack thereof, human behavior, and interactive, immersive storytelling. Jonathan Nolan play long ideas Every man is a mob, a chain gang of idiots. Jonathan Nolan gang idiot men Each week the machine is spitting out a number for a new person or a new world within New York that you get to know. And the idea from the beginning was that some of the characters would stick around and become part of the lives of the show, and the world of the show itself will continue to grow. Jonathan Nolan new-york character ideas The secret to all drama, film, TV, or books - the thing that people respond to most, and the thing I find myself as a viewer feeling most interested in, is the idea of change. Jonathan Nolan change drama book Time is an absurdity. An abstraction. The only thing that matters is this moment. This moment a million times over. You have to trust me. If this moment is repeated enough, if you keep trying — and you have to keep trying — eventually you will come across the next item on your list. Jonathan Nolan over-you matter trying I'm a big believer in pose some questions and then answer a few of them before you move onto the next set of questions. Jonathan Nolan next answers moving Even if you're not a parent, you have parents and you've been in those situations where there's a certain kind of goodbye - nothing this extreme exists, but I think that's what everyone holds onto, that common denominator that runs through this that everyone can understand. Jonathan Nolan running goodbye thinking One of the things that's really fun to tap in with television right now is this sort of explosion, the peak TV moment that we're in, people are exploring different modes of storytelling here. But one of the exciting things here is being able to commit upfront to a big, big, big story. Jonathan Nolan different fun people
