All Quotes By Tag: Plot

“There’s an old rule of theater that goes, ‘If there’s a gun on the mantel in Act I, it must go off in Act III.’ The reverse is also true.”

“In our modern age, there are writers who have heaped scorn on the very idea of the primacy of story. I’d rather warm my hands on a sunlit ice floe than try to coax fire from the books they carve from glaciers.”

“Story is honorable and trustworthy; plot is shifty, and best kept under house arrest.”

“The principle I always go on in writing a novel is to think of the characters in terms of actors in a play. I say to myself, if a big name were playing this part, and if he found that after a strong first act he had practically nothing to do in the second act, he would walk out. Now, then, can I twist the story so as to give him plenty to do all the way through? I believe the only way a writer can keep himself up to the mark is by examining each story quite coldly before he starts writing it and asking himself it is all right as a story. I mean, once you go saying to yourself, “This is a pretty weak plot as it stands, but if I’m such a hell of a writer that my magic touch will make it okay,” you’re sunk. If they aren’t in interesting situations, characters can’t be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them.”(Interview, The Paris Review, Issue 64, Winter 1975)”

“… plot, the absolute line between two points which I’ve always despised. Not for literary reasons, but because it takes all hope away. Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life.”

“When all the details fit in perfectly, something is probably wrong with the story.”

“I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief… I’m not in the business of offending people. I find the books upholding certain values that I think are important, such as life is immensely valuable and this world is an extraordinarily beautiful place. We should do what we can to increase the amount of wisdom in the world.[Washington Post interview, 19 February 2001]”

“Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.”

“Most of the movies are working like, ‘Information, cut, information, cut, information, cut’ and for them the information is just the story. For me, a lot of things [are] information – I try to involve, to the movie, the time, the space, and a lot of other things – which is a part of our life but not connecting directly to the story-telling. And I’m working on the same way – ‘information, cut, information, cut,’ but for me the information is not only the story.”