Being a good television screenwriter requires an understanding of the way film accelerates the communication of words.
Steven BochcoCasting is sort of like looking at paintings. You don't know what you'll like, but you recognize it when you see it.
Steven BochcoThe thing that has always interested me in the kinds of shows that I do have more to do with the consequences of behavior than the behavior itself. Pulling a trigger and shooting somebody, or dismembering somebody.
Steven BochcoWhen it is perceived that a show has gone awry, the pressure is staggering, and as a writer caught in that storm, it feels like you are being attacked by jackals.
Steven BochcoYou have to give directors and cinematographers a word blueprint for visuals, but I had to learn that from experience.
Steven BochcoHill Street Blues gave me an opportunity to work with an ensemble cast of people whose work I admired.
Steven BochcoVivid images are like a beautiful melody that speaks to you on an emotional level. It bypasses your logic centers and even your intellect and goes to a different part of the brain.
Steven BochcoHill Street Blues might have been the first television show that had a memory. One episode after another was part of a cumulative experience shared by the audience.
Steven BochcoThe entertainment world, television, movies, social media, YouTube stuff, we're so bombarded with so much imagery and such a great sense of inhumanity, and there is a coarseness, a coarsening of interaction.
Steven BochcoThe thing that always interests me from a storytelling point of view is how that moment of trauma, whatever the trauma is, even divorce, your dog dies, whatever it is, the consequence, in terms of people's emotional lives and the way it resonates behaviorally for a long time is really the stuff that interests me.
Steven Bochco