Literary Birthday – 25 December – Rod Serling

Rod Serling was born 25 December 1924 and died 28 June 1975

Rod Serling Quotes

1. Every writer is a frustrated actor who recites his lines in the hidden auditorium of his skull.
2. The easiest thing on earth [is] to come up with an idea … The hardest thing on earth is to put it down.
3. Hollywood’s a great place to live … if you’re a grapefruit.
4. We’re developing a new citizenry. One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won’t be able to think.
5. Ideas come from the Earth. They come from every human experience that you’ve either witnessed or have heard about, translated into your brain in your own sense of dialogue, in your own language form. Ideas are born from what is smelled, heard, seen, experienced, felt, emotionalised. Ideas are probably in the air, like little tiny items of ozone.
6. I take off and write out of a sense of desperate compulsion.
7. All writers are born. They’re never made… on the other hand, we can sharpen the width of the writer. We can point out style to him. We can use the criteria that is age-old. Three thousand years of theatre. That he can utilise to make a judgement on the value of his own work. We can show him what can move people.
8. I find that, within the framework of the science fiction or fantasy genres, the use of travelling back in time is a very effective way of producing contrasts, of producing a kind of free-wheeling storytelling device.
9. The instinct of creativity must be followed by the act. The physical act of putting it down for a sense of permanence.
10. [The Climax] must be valid. It must take the various character traits of the individuals involved in your story and make them do something or react to something as their nature dictates.

Rod Serling was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator. He was well known for his science-fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. He won a 1955 Emmy Award for his script Patterns, a 1957 Emmy for his script Requiem for a Heavyweight, and a 1959 Emmy for The Twilight Zone. He was also co-author of The Planet of the Apes. He taught dramatic writing at Ithaca College in New York.

Source for Image and quotes/Source for quotes

 by Amanda Patterson

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar