David E. Kelley Quotes

• You learn more when things go wrong.

  David E. Kelley

  When Things Go Wrong

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• The ideal time for writing a [television] script is four days, though sometimes it has to be two or three days depending on the deadline. If it's two days, sometimes there are things I see that don't work as well. If I have two weeks, the scripts get kind of flabby and lack the adrenaline that a sense of deadline fills you with.

  David E. Kelley

  Writing, Two, Three

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• You've got to honor your relationship with your audience - that they sit down because they want to be entertained. And that doesn't mean you can't provoke them and antagonize them and challenge them in the course of the entertainment as long as you keep the entertainment part of the equation alive.

  David E. Kelley

  Mean, Long, Challenges

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• The way I personally work is I like to write what I know, what I feel, and also where I am.

  David E. Kelley

  Writing, Way, Feels

  "Emmy-winning writer-producer David E. Kelley". "Tavis Smiley", www.pbs.org. March 8, 2012.

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• Some of my high school teachers did remind me that I had an excellent imagination when it came to making up excuses.

  David E. Kelley

  Teacher, School, Imagination

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• It gets harder and harder to succeed and find audiences with the 500-channel universe, the remote control, and people being so trigger happy with that remote control. It just gets harder to get a foothold.

  David E. Kelley

  People, Succeed, Remote Control

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• I gravitate toward the law, I think, certainly more times than not, because it's our best mechanism for legislating human behavior, and morality, and ethics.

  David E. Kelley

  Thinking, Law, Ethics

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• When I really have to push and grope and scratch and claw to make a story work, that's a telltale sign that maybe something conceptually isn't right.

  David E. Kelley

  Scratches, Stories, Claws

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• We also have issue oriented storylines which are an examination of an issue, be it ethical or social.

  David E. Kelley

  Issues, Examination, Ethical

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• One of the most fundamental questions people have about defense attorneys is, 'How can you do that? How can you go to bat everyday for a person that you may not know is guilty but you have a pretty good idea that he's not so innocent?' It's a question that defense attorneys answer for themselves by not addressing.

  David E. Kelley

  Ideas, People, Everyday

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• When you create a show, and create characters, these people are like children to you.

  David E. Kelley

  Children, Character, People

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• I never thought of myself as a writer.

  David E. Kelley

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• For me, I'm happy to succeed on any network.

  David E. Kelley

  Succeed

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• When the stories come easily and the writing process doesn't feel laboring, that's usually a good sign for me.

  David E. Kelley

  Writing, Stories, Process

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• My court skills may have atrophied.

  David E. Kelley

  Skills, May, Court

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• The designer [...] has a passion for doing something that fits somebody's needs, but that is not just a simple fix. The designer has a dream that goes beyond what exists, rather than fixing what exists. [...] The designer wants to create a solution that fits in a deeper situational or social sense.

  David E. Kelley

  Dream, Passion, Simple

  "The Designer’s Stance". Interview with Bradley Hartfield, hci.stanford.edu.

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• But I do believe that in all my shows, I really enjoy the quirky, the eccentric characters, the ones you don't meet every day.

  David E. Kelley

  Believe, Character, Quirky

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• I don't think it's that strange that a show has sort of a bumpy beginning. It's just part and parcel of the process.

  David E. Kelley

  Thinking, Strange, Process

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• I've never really told jokes. I'm not good at it.

  David E. Kelley

  Jokes

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• I think the law changes, which is a nice luxury.

  David E. Kelley

  Nice, Thinking, Law

  "Emmy-winning writer-producer David E. Kelley". "Tavis Smiley", www.pbs.org. March 8, 2012.

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• In retrospect, I think it's a plus, because now we've been able to go back and spend extra time on each of those episodes and make them better.

  David E. Kelley

  Thinking, Extra Time, Retrospect

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• The more lawyers there are, the more people are out there to encourage others not to go to law school.

  David E. Kelley

  Encouragement, School, Law

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• Chemistry is not anything an executive producer or writer can orchestrate or plan; you just hope for it.

  David E. Kelley

  Chemistry, Producers, Plans

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• People are out of their home on a Saturday night or they're at the movies or they're at dinner and a lot of the people who flip on the television are doing just that. They may have never seen your show before and you can't count on to your audience to be there week in and week out.

  David E. Kelley

  Home, Night, People

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• If you interview people or friends who work with me, they would say I'm private or internal or don't emote a lot. Yet I do it every day for 10 million people. I just don't do it for the 30 people I'm in the room with.

  David E. Kelley

  People, Rooms, Interviews

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