Aaron Sorkin Quotes

If you lined up 10 writers and asked them to write a movie about Steve Jobs, you'd get 10 very different movies.

I think mostly about intention and obstacle somebody wants something somethings standing in their way of getting it.

I think it's up to writers to write stuff that is compelling enough that people want to watch.

Just to clarify the division of labor on the show, I write the show and Alan [Poul] does everything else.

Toby Zeigler: There's literally no one in the world I don't hate right now.

A hero would die for his country, but he'd much rather live for it.

TOBY: The world can move or not by changing some words.

By and large, the mission of any ghost is to offer humility. They point out what's important by mocking what is not.
(Joshua Malina, Sports Night)

An artist's job is to captivate ... if we stumble into truth, we got lucky.

You know you really don't need a forensic team to get to the bottom of this.

I'm crazy about 'Breaking Bad,' but I wouldn't know how to write an episode of it.

Decisions are made by those who show up

PRESIDENT BARTLETT: See how benevolent I can be when everybody just does what I tell them.

The rules of drama are very much separate from the properties of life. I think that's especially true of Shakespeare.

I would love for people to think that I am as quick, clever, smart and heroic as the characters that I write, but those characters are characters.

You don't need to wear a patch on your arm to have honor.

With a television series, there's a hard deadline, and so you have to write even when you're not writing well.

Whether it's 'The West Wing' or anything else, my first thought is always, 'What's a good story?'

I desperately need the love of complete strangers. That's one reason I overtip. I love when skycaps, waiters, and valets are happy to see me.

As a dramatist, you're looking for points of friction ...

I've never met anyone who has said, "My goal is to make America mediocre." That's a kind of hard-right conservative fallacy.

I'm sick of girls who don't know how to high-five,

You can't handle the truth! - Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men.

The real problem with all drugs is that they work. Fantastically. They're great, right up until the moment they kill you.

I'm not sophisticated when it comes to politics, when it comes to journalism.

I think that if I couldn't write, I would be unemployable.

Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for.

Writers are opposite of athletes, they get better with age

It's important to remember that, first and foremost, if not only, this is entertainment. 'The West Wing' isn't meant to be good for you.

First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.

It wouldn't kill you to watch a film or pick up a newspaper once in a while.

Stupid people surround themselves with smart people. Smart people surround themselves with smart people who disagree with them.

I do not speak through my characters; it's not a ventriloquist act.

We have a natural resentment toward government, which was how we were born

I'm not interested in the difference between good and bad, I'm interested in the differences between good and great.

You can't handle the truth . You can't handle the sad but historic reality.

Conflict, when used as a device, makes for good television and bad journalism.

Only criminals and adulterers should have to hide who they are.

Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.

Toby: All right. It couldn't have gone far, right?
Sam: No.
Toby: Somewhere in this building ... is our talent.

She's a person; the doctor pronounces her dead, not the news.

All my heroes wore coats and ties to work. What happened to men wearing hats? Maybe I should bring back hats.

And my friends, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Presidents don't make new friends. That's why they've got to keep their old ones. Adm. Fitzwallace

I'm a playwright. All I care about is the play being good.

My resting pulse as a writer is writing idealistically and romantically; aspirationally. My taste lies in quixotic heroes.

That's a very real feeling - that I don't have a story to tell. I'm not a pure storyteller. I have a tough time with story.

While I was doing 'The Newsroom,' I always had the news on on different networks on different TVs around my house and around my office.

Oratory should raise your heart rate. Oratory should blow the doors off the place.

If I get an idea for a series that I really like, I'm sure I won't be able to resist coming back and doing it.

I like writing idealistically, romantically and swashbucklingly.

Trying to guess what the (mass) audience wants and then trying to satisfy that is usually a bad recipe for getting something good.

I'm neither a millennial nor a hipster.

I want to convey that I'm crazy about the Kardashians - but I'm not sure which is which.

Develop your own compass, and trust it. Take risks, dare to fail, remember the first person through the wall always gets hurt.

It's nice that HBO is in business with the audience and not with the advertisers. There's a difference.

You are like seven of the strangest women I have ever met.

Roxy Sorkin, your father just won the Academy Award. I'm going to have to insist on some respect from your guinea pig.

The guy who wins the Oscar for Best Actor has a much higher bar to clear than the woman who wins best actress.

I'm a registered Republican, I only seem liberal because I believe that hurricanes are caused by high barometric pressure and not gay marriage.

If you feel that strongly about something, you have an obligation to try and change my mind.

Don't tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing.

People who don't know anything tend to make up fake rules, the real rules being considerably more difficult to learn.

There are no Asian movie stars

Music is what mathematics does on a Saturday night.

The downside to series television is that the schedule is ferocious. It constantly feels like you have a midterm due that you haven't started yet.

I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue.

DONNA: She said she knew it in her heart. Do you know how many times I've been wrong about things I knew in my heart?

The upside of web-based journalism is that everybody gets a chance. The downside is that everybody gets a chance.

Don't ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world, it's the only thing that ever has.

Rule of storytelling: When a character is shoved against a wall, shove them against a wall harder.

Film doesn't have to worry. Movies are awesome. There's no war going on, theaters aren't going to lose.

It's an election year. We would prefer that voters didn't use common sense.

This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.

And a wheat thin the size of Lake Tahoe.

Everything can be going well, but if I'm not writing, I'm not happy. When I'm writing well, I'm like a different person.

I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection.

I feel like the better version of myself is on paper ... I'd rather have people know me on paper.

Never argue with a drunk or a fool.

I spend most of my days pacing around, muttering that I have no ideas, feeling like I'm walking a plank.

Television is a visual medium. You have to create some kind of visual interest. And it's entertainment for your eyes.

I was sitting on a bench having a bagel, but from where I was both jogging and sculng looks good to me.
Sam

I think socializing on the Internet is to socializing what reality TV is to reality.

I'm not on Facebook, and I don't tweet, but I know plenty of people who love both.

As long as you keep one foot in the real world while the other foot's in a fairy tale, that fairy tale is going to seem kind of attainable.

You can only write, 'Somebody wants something, something else is in their way of getting it.'

It's one thing to be asked to respect someone else's religion. It's another to be asked to respect their taboos.

Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep can play with the boys but there just aren't that many tour-de-force roles out there for women,

Tell me what you think and then tell me what the really smart person in the room who disagrees with you thinks.

Elite is not a bad word, it's an aspirational one

We live in a world that has walls and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns.

A friend is somebody who says the same things to your face that they would say if you're not in the room.

I am all for everyone having a voice; I just don't think everyone has earned the microphone. And that's what the Internet has done.

It seems to me that more and more we've come to expect less and less from each other, and I think that should change.

Good writers borrow. The best writers steal.

Writing anything, it sorta starts the way you'd build a castle at the beach. You're just taking your hands and you're mounting up sand.

When I was starting out, William Goldman took me under his wing, and he's still the person I show pages to.

Government should be a place where people can come together, and no one gets left behind. No one ... gets left behind. An instrument of good.