The interpretive element of "Lost," the fact that you immediately need as soon as the episode is over to seek out a community of people to express your own thoughts about it, understand what they thought about it and form an opinion, that's the bread and butter of the show.

Damon Lindelof

Categorized in : People Community Elements

I've always been fascinated by Disneyland and Disney World, and my favorite part of the park was always Tomorrowland.

Damon Lindelof

parks my-favorite world

Once you spend more than $100 million on a movie, you have to save the world.

Damon Lindelof

save-the-world millions world

I stand by the Lost finale. It's the story that we wanted to tell, and we told it. No excuses. No apologies. I look back on it as fondly as I look back on the process of writing the whole show. And while I'll always care what you think, I can't be a slave to it anymore. Here's why: I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really … I was alive.

Damon Lindelof

apology writing thinking

One person's magical thinking is another person's cynicism.

Damon Lindelof

cynicism persons thinking

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.

Damon Lindelof

voice matter ideas

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.

Damon Lindelof

ted-talks sound may

I make no distinction between writing and storytelling; I've always wanted to tell stories.

Damon Lindelof

storytelling stories writing

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.

Damon Lindelof

blade-runner understanding world

I would say that my fatal flaw, as a human being, is that I need people to like me, and if they don't like me, I will obsess over it - and try to change my personality until they like me - even if they don't like me for reasons that have nothing to do with me, and even if they're strangers.

Damon Lindelof

personality trying people

There is a reason behind life. There is some connectivity between living beings. Whether you want to call that 'God' or 'The Force' or whatever word you use for it, I do believe in a spiritualized mechanism.

Damon Lindelof

use want believe

It's television. The reality of it is, if you go on the boards and people are saying, "I saw that coming," or "This is lame," or "I can't believe they're doing this again..." Having been one of those people myself, I know better, and try to avoid it.

Damon Lindelof

believe reality people

The fun thing about doing origin stories is you are introducing the audience to characters.

Damon Lindelof

stories fun character

The fundamental law of nature is to not know too much about yourself.

Damon Lindelof

too-much fundamentals law

We all look at ourselves in the mirror and think, 'Am I good?'

Damon Lindelof

mirrors looks thinking

I've always been into having stories told to me. I was a voracious reader, my father was also a teller of tales; and the kind of Baron Munchausen proxy of a tall tale was much more interesting than a true tale.

Damon Lindelof

stories father interesting

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.

Damon Lindelof

dad baseball sports

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.

Damon Lindelof

clothes feelings ideas

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.

Damon Lindelof

real new-york thinking

I promised myself I would never be one of those people who complained about "Oh man, lots of people are interested in our movie and now I gotta talk about it."

Damon Lindelof

men people

Hopping around time in a non-linear storytelling fashion (on 'Lost') allows you to bring back characters who are dead and, in some cases, buried. Now that time travel is the story itself, it opens up even more doors. So when an actor reads that they're getting killed off on the show, they're basically, like, 'Okay, but should I still bother to show up next week?'

Damon Lindelof

fashion doors character