Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next.
David MametMy dad was an immigrant kid and a Democrat and a Jew, and we didn't know any Republicans in our group. So I grew up Democratic. My dad was a labor lawyer - a very hardworking guy, a one-horse labor lawyer - and then I went to hippie college and lived in the bubble.
David MametHitchcock denigrated American films, saying they were all 'pictures of people talking' - as, indeed, most of them are.
David Mamet