I recently rewatched Memento, and even though I’ve seen the film several times before, I was still blown away. Christopher Nolan is my favorite filmmaker. Memento, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, and Interstellar, are some of my favorite movies of all time.

The reason I love Nolan and his films is encapsulated in this one quote:

“Films are subjective—what you like, what you don’t like. But the thing for me that is absolutely unifying is the idea that every time I go to the cinema and pay my money and sit down and watch a film go up onscreen, I want to feel that the people who made that film think it’s the best movie in the world, that they poured everything into it and they really love it. The responses where it’s lacking – ‘it’s just a movie and it’s pretty good, I liked it’ – they are the things that kill you. This is my obsession for years, you just pour yourself into it.” – Christopher Nolan

I couldn’t agree more. You may not think Nolan’s films are great, but you can’t deny the fact that he strived for greatness.

There’s so much content these days, most of it “pretty good,” but it’s impossible to read and see it all. That’s why, like Nolan, when I set out to write a screenplay or a novel, I don’t try to write something that I think is “pretty good.” I try to write what I think is the best thing ever. Others may disagree, but at least I tried.