Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse agreed to answer some questions sent in by Lostpedia users, on themselves, their careers and circus around the show. The only caveat was that they would not answer questions about the show itself. No mystery resolution, nothing like that.
Damon and Carlton have said several times that they want the show to speak for itself, and we understand why they want to do that. After six years on the air, the body of work and the legacy they leave really does speak for itself. We understand that, and we want to honor that.
Thanks to Damon and Carlton
Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof
Lostpedia: What's your advice for people who want to break into television writing and/or would someday like to be a television show runner like the two of you?
Read, read, read! So much of LOST is based on our shared love for the great stories of our childhood (Narnia for Carlton, Oz for Damon) and young adulthood (Stephen King!)... getting the opportunity to create your own show and run it is a combination of perseverance, luck and knowing the right person... but once you've managed those things, you need to draw on STORY. So hit the books, dammit!
Lostpedia: Hey Damon and Carlton, Firstly; congratulations on finally coming to the end of your journey on Lost. My question is; if you both had the chance to go back to a specific point in your career (in either Lost or anything else you've working on) what would you do differently? Thanks, I look forward to seeing even more amazing work from you both and good luck for the future.
Damon and Carlton: We can't go back. Because what happened, happened! But seriously... every little thing in our life lead us here -- to this partnership and this incredible show. Why risk changing a single moment if it could result in LOST never happening? We take all the downs on the roller coaster ride because they're a part of the journey. Mistakes, yes... but no regrets!
Lostpedia: I love your podcasts, and the slapdowns this season have been very amusing. I know the LOST podcast will be ending but is there any possibility that you two will do some sort of podcast together unrelated to LOST after the show is said is done for us Darlton fans? -Namaste!
Darlton: We are not so delusional as to believe that outside of discussing LOST many people would want to hear us rambling on about other subjects. We loved doing them, but have no plans to do any more.
Lostpedia: Damon, will you be writing any more comics soon? Do you find it easier or harder than writing for the screen?
Damon Lindelof
Damon: Much, much harder and time consuming. And I have to do them alone -- which is not nearly as fun as the collaborative awesomeness of working with my friends and colleagues. So no plans currently do comics.
Lostpedia: Carlton, I read that you worked with Robert Coles at Harvard. When I was a child, I was interviewed for Coles' research regarding the way that children perceive God. Did your work with Coles influence your contributions to the Lost Story? And which one of you is the C.S. Lewis fan?
Carlton Cuse
Carlton: Coles had a huge influence on me. He was my mentor in college. One of the courses he taught was called Moral and Social Inquiry and in it we read many great writers, including James Agee, Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy. The course and much of Coles teaching was centered on the question: how does one lead a life? What matters as we make our way on our journey? Those questions and that inquiry has stuck with me. Coles also helped cement my desire to be a writer and taught me one of the first and the most valuable lessons about writing, which was -- WRITE. Do it daily; do it on a schedule. I later learned that almost all the writers I admired do this.
Lostpedia: One thing strikes me about Lost and its fan culture. Fans seem to carry as much if not more reverence for the creators/producers/writers as they do the actors. I think this one of many unique aspects of this show. Are the two of you as likely as, say, Matthew Fox to be recognized while going out to dinner? Or, is the attention you get in some ways more intense than the attention received by those in front of the camera? I am one of those kinds of fans, BTW:)
Damecar: Matthew Fox is FAR more likely to be recognized at dinner unless you're talking the Comicon snack bar. We lead fairly anonymous lives unless we do go someplace like Comicon where people are expecting to see us. We did, however, get offered a David Cross/Ted Danson movie that they passed on.
Lostpedia: Have either of you or anyone from the show (writers, cast members, etc.) contributed or editted information on Lostpedia? If so was it a major edit or was it things like spelling mistakes? Thanks for your time.
When Gregg Nations, our in house LOST keeper of the show Bibles and information guru, was tied up on other business, we would go to Lostpedia to check on certain facts or details. But everything was always checked through Gregg. Gregg might have made some contributions or corrected something, but we are not sure. None of the other writers did.
Lostpedia: Damon and Carlton, This is about as random a question gets but I need to know. Some episodes written by the two of you feature Carlton's name first. Some episode feature Damon's name first. I'm just curious about why that is. Also, I noticed no single person has written an episode of LOST since season two. It's been writing teams for nearly five seasons. I'm just curious about that shift and why it occurred. Thank you both for six wonderful seasons. I had an awesome time watching this show so thank you very much. Good luck in the future and Ma-halo.
Carlmon: Since the two of us are not technically "writing partners," we felt it was only fair to switch our names every other script. And the reason we and the other writers always partner on scripts plugs into the basic theme of LOST -- nobody does it alone!