Barbara Kingsolver Quotes

A story invites both writer and reader into a kind of superficial ease: we want to slide along, pleasingly entertained, lost in the fictional dream.

Readers want a story, not a pattern. It's the specifics of a story that make it really ping our various reader radars.

I think the best entertainment tackles social issues in a sort of seamless way.

I am an old-fashioned storyteller. I try to make people laugh and cry. A fiction writer's duty is to entertain. If you can sneak in something profound or symbolic, so much the better.

People want good stories.

All we think about is how to keep the audience engaged, and normally we're big on plot because that's the easy way to do it.

Beginnings and endings are not interesting; audiences want the high point, which means you've got to get to it and get to it now - get the gun out fast, the clothes off quick.

If you can have a great story that people can follow the mystery and get the suspense, and then you have those moments of tension and a splash of visual fun, then you kind of get everything. You get your money's worth.

Literary novelists who have a strong handle on plot are often characterized as good vacation reads because they manage to transport you elsewhere, away from the petty facts of ordinary life.

'Star Wars' is so accessible that, at any point, you can sort of jump in and become immersed in it.

There's nothing interesting about seeing our characters for an hour and a half do some flashy flying in the sky and beating up on some buildings. It's boring, and people don't want that anymore. They want character, and they want story.

I think conflict is one of the things that makes for a good story.

Things that matter are a great story, entertainment, how the lead part moves the story forward and who the directors are.

I think any story line that involves a relationship is going to be interesting.

Science fiction is boring when someone starts explaining the science to me.

If you can't figure out how to make the beginning of your book compelling, you're probably not writing a compelling book.

Things happen to all of us. The writer's job is to get you interested.

Without a good story, a franchise won't work.

People don't come to the theatres to watch a kiss. It's the story that appeals to them.

The way I view drama is life with the boring bits taken out.

The liveliest effusions of wit and humour are simply what the reader of a novel has a right to expect.

A good story isn't preachy; a good story is always entertaining.

It seems to me that literature is giving way a little bit to the immediacy of other diversions, other forms of entertainment. What will it be in fifty years? I don't know. Will there be printed books? Probably, but I'm not sure. There's always going to be literature, though. I believe that. I think literature has a way of getting deep into people and being essential. Literature has its own powers.

What I try to do in my picture books is to be all-inclusive, but not exclusive, to not exclude the kid and not exclude the parents from the experience. And it's not a very easy task; you can't find stories that work that way too much of the time.

A novel must work as a story because no one's going to get to the other themes if you don't entertain the reader. But I like to have another layer of meaning, although you can read the book on one level and not bother with that other layer.