I love what he says about writing dialogue:

"It really is like editing. You write a bunch of dailies and then you edit it together into a comprehensible form.”

For me, the characters ALWAYS serve the hook / idea / story.

If the hook is "a takes down the Empire," the question is "what character makes that story best?" It's not a hot-shot Jedi (Lucas' earlier ideas), but a farmboy, because the farmboy has the furthest journey to take.

Plot before Story. I had that suspicion after going into Batman Begins and thinking the story was over when he says "I'm Batman."

So do whatever you want, just be damn good at it.