Michael Mann (nonfiction)

"I've got a theory, which probably holds no water whatsoever, about why there's so much genre content in media — meaning police stories, crime stories, so much of that. It's because of the nature of the medium. Detectives detecting do what writers and directors do in the inverse: We have an idea for a character, and our character has origins that we invent. Those origins become an engine that causes him to do certain activities and express himself and have different attitudes based on who the character is. And then those activities have consequences and leave behind certain effects."

• https://www.slashfilm.com/1078602/heat-exemplifies-michael-manns-theory-on-genre-films-as-a-whole/