Author

With 'The Tudors,' I had a huge amount of material, I mean so many books and so much stuff about what they really said. So, in a way it was kind of trying to strip it out and find the stories inside all this material.

From Michael Hirst

Nobody knows what really happened in any historical period. There are some periods where we know more than others, though.

From Michael Hirst

People love cliches. If you can give people cliches, that's very good TV, then.

From Michael Hirst

I'm very bad at delegating writing responsibilities, because I've never been able to do it; I've never had any help or looked for any help.

From Michael Hirst

When you're making a TV drama, the showrunner is God, and so however onerous and difficult and consuming that responsibility is, you're being treated with respect, so it changes your whole outlook to the production. You're being asked about costumes, set design, music, every aspect of the show.

From Michael Hirst

My instinct is to absolutely recoil when talking about writing in a mechanistic way. Nothing could be dumber than writing a film or TV script based on prescriptions, on other peoples' ideas of what character should be.

From Michael Hirst

The key for me with historical characters is they're interesting because they're human beings. A little bit of Hemingway goes a long way here, but journalists and writers should honestly look at their material and have a real interest, a real passion in what they want to write, and they should also have a lot of knowledge as well.

From Michael Hirst

For 'Vikings,' we have to do so much outside shooting, and it's normally - I think with American shows, it'll be 60 or 70 percent inside and a little bit outside, but with us, it's almost 70 percent outside, and that's huge and really difficult.

From Michael Hirst

'Downton Abbey' is just one cliche after another, and it is a really, really poor piece of drama. But that's only me talking. That's just my take on it.

From Michael Hirst

When I did 'The Tudors,' there was massive information available and a ready-made market.

From Michael Hirst

Michael Hirst

Notable Quotes

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