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The Great Gatsby
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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Carlton Cuse Quotes

Television used to be made much more in a vacuum; the only feedback the audience had for a long time was in a Nielsen number that would arrive sometime after the show had been broadcast. And now, people are just completely engaged on so many levels, and I think that you have to find a way as a show creator to follow your own compass.

– Carlton Cuse

The experience of reading a book is always unique. I believe that you render a version of the story, when you read a book, in a way that is unique and special to each person who reads it.

– Carlton Cuse

The most difficult story that I’ve ever been involved in breaking on any of my shows was ‘The Constant’ episode of ‘Lost,’ which was when Desmond was consciousness-traveling.

– Carlton Cuse

I really think that as good of a job as you do as a writer, you’re absolutely indebted to the actors that have to deliver that material.

– Carlton Cuse

I think there’s this essential human desire to have a unified field theory. Everyone is like, ‘I want to unlock the single secret to ‘Lost.’ There isn’t any one secret. There is not a unified field theory for ‘Lost,’ nor do we think there should be, because philosophically, we don’t buy into that as a conceit.

– Carlton Cuse

I took physics, and lo and behold, there’s a lot of physics in ‘Lost.’ I think for most people, liberal arts educations are more abstract, but for me, it’s been a chance to apply the things I’ve learned more directly. I also took some Folklore and Mythology classes, and I think that a lot of that influenced me.

– Carlton Cuse

This idea that you can watch a show like ‘True Detective,’ and it was awesome, but is it really ruined for you if the finale is not your favorite episode of it? It’s just odd to me.

– Carlton Cuse

As a writer, I always think about who my prototype actors are, in my brain. It’s helpful, as a writer, to think about that.

– Carlton Cuse

‘Brisco’ was the first show I created, and of course, at the time I had no idea what a special experience it was because I didn’t have a frame of reference. After it was over I was like, ‘Damn. Shoot. That was something special.’ I’m still upset that it got cancelled.

– Carlton Cuse

The creative process is not like a situation where you get struck by a single lightning bolt. You have ongoing discoveries, and there’s ongoing creative revelations. Yes, it’s really helpful to be marching toward a specific destination, but, along the way, you must allow yourself room for your ideas to blossom, take root, and grow.

– Carlton Cuse

When you’re a storyteller, part of the process of storytelling is the kind of communion you form with the audience to whom you’re telling your story. If some segment of the audience doesn’t like that story, it doesn’t feel good.

– Carlton Cuse

One of the things that’s, I think, hard in television is that there’s a certain sameness to a lot of television because you’re working in a very constricted box, and the box is defined by the amount of money you have to spend and the amount of time you have to get ready.

– Carlton Cuse

I think ‘Lost’ was really a pioneer in the use of the kind of connection between a television show and the Internet, and the Internet really gave fans an opportunity to create a community around the show. That was something that wasn’t really planned; it just sort of grew up in the wake of the show.

– Carlton Cuse

We feel like ‘Lost’ deserved a real resolution, not a ‘snow globe, waking up in bed, it’s all been a dream, cut to black’ kind of ending. We thought that would be kind of a betrayal to an audience that’s been on this journey for six years. We thought that was not the right ending for our show.

– Carlton Cuse

I think movie and television companies are in the business of making money, and if you have a franchise, eventually you’ll want to exploit that franchise and revisit it. So I assume at some point someone will do another story in the ‘Lost’ world.

– Carlton Cuse

We should just go back to, like, episode 30 and re-break from there and just make it a spaceship. That would be the unexpected reboot of ‘Lost.’

– Carlton Cuse

I think everyone in Hollywood works on multiple things because you never know what’s going to happen with your projects.

– Carlton Cuse

‘Lost’ is about a bunch of people stranded on an island. It’s compelling, but kind of tiny. But what sustains you are the characters.

– Carlton Cuse

I love ‘Titanic’ and the idea that you’re kind of rooting for Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet to survive despite the fact that you know that they’re not going to.

– Carlton Cuse

If you go to a movie and it’s a great experience, the experience at the end of it is always like this sadness that it’s over, that your time with these characters is finished. There’s almost like an achy feeling that I have when I go to a movie that I love and it ends.

– Carlton Cuse

Tragedy is a great storytelling form. It worked extremely well for Shakespeare. It worked extremely well for Jim Cameron with ‘Titanic.’

– Carlton Cuse

I think ‘North by Northwest’ and ‘Rope’ and Rear Window’ and ‘Psycho’ are on my list of favorite all time movies. I just think his kind of command as a director was almost unparalleled, and I feel like in certain ways the sort of character-based thriller owes more to Hitchcock than anyone.

– Carlton Cuse

I’m a big baseball fan, and I feel proprietary about the Dodgers. I’m not the owner. I’m not the manager. But I feel passionate about the decisions that they make, and I take it personally when they make decisions I don’t like.

– Carlton Cuse

I can’t say that the ending of a story is always the best part of the story, and yet there’s sort of this implicit idea that the finale is somehow supposed to be the mind-blowing best episode of a show. The question is: Why is that? Why do people make that assumption?

– Carlton Cuse

I feel like if you enjoyed the 119 hours that precede the finale of ‘Lost,’ is that whole experience ruined by the fact that you might not agree with everything that we did in the finale? I would hope not! I would hope that you would appreciate the fact that you were entertained for 119 hours even if you didn’t love the finale.

– Carlton Cuse

That’s one of the reasons why ‘Lost’ has to end: because we can’t sit around and envision, ‘What is the flashback for Jack in year nine?’ It doesn’t realistically exist.

– Carlton Cuse