I never feel a huge need for backstory in my novels or films. Quick sketches are often enough. When you encounter people in life - like a chance encounter at a bar or wherever you happen to be - you make these incredibly quick, quite intricate decisions about people based on very small amounts of coded information. We're good at that. Long descriptions prior to meeting someone or as you're getting to know them almost don't work.
Alex GarlandYou fish, swim, eat, laze around, and everyone's so friendly. It's such simple stuff, but... If i could stop the world and restart life, put the clock back, i think I'd restart it like this. For everyone.
Alex GarlandI do all this alone, everything I achieve, I achieve alone, because it's my head I'm locked into, and I share this space with nobody but myself.
Alex GarlandWhen you develop an infatuation for someone you always find a reason to believe that this is exactly the person for you. It doesnโt need to be a good reason. Taking photographs of the night sky, for example. Now, in the long run, thatโs just the kind of dumb, irritating habit that would cause you to split up. But in the haze of infatuation, itโs just what youโve been searching for all these years.
Alex GarlandThe thing video games had to learn was to write, which is not to let people choose their own stuff, but actually prescribe it. To say, "This character is not a blank canvas that you can project onto. I'm going to tell you what this character is like. And I'm going to tell you what happens to them. You're going to feel involved in other ways." Video games made the mistake of thinking everything had to be projectable, and this doesn't do that at all.
Alex Garland