Flannery O'Connor Quotes

I want to tell a story and shape it all the way through to the end.

Our biggest challenge is always story. The story is the ultimate thing you try to tackle.

I've always written about other artists, or I write my thoughts down, but I've never written a story.

I don't think in terms of optimism and pessimism when writing a story. I am telling a story.

Storytelling is about two things; it's about character and plot.

You cannot base a whole movie on just the imagery alone. It has to be the story and the characters.

Listen to great storytellers; slowly, you will learn about voice, timing, tension, structure, climax - all the things you need to tell stories that will capture the imagination of your audience.

A story is built on characters and reasons.

Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.

You can read a dozen different textbooks or how-to manuals that will tell you the basic rules of what makes a story - a beginning, a middle, and an end.

I'm very interested in storytelling and anything that plays with structure.

For me, the first thing is to tell a good story.

A short story is one idea; a novel is a whole soup of them.

I believe that, in any novel of mine, the principal objective is the construction of the whole.

I like to tell stories that have beginnings, middles and ends.

I always think plot is what you fall back on if you can't write, to keep things going.

All the writing elements are the same. You need to tell a good story... You've got good characters... People think there's some dramatic difference between writing 'Little Bear' and the 'Hunger Games,' and as a writer, for me, there isn't.

I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense.

I write both fiction and nonfiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later.

I think a good story's a good story and a good character's a good character.

I love a really good storyline.

My sister and brother are both writers as well. We are constantly discussing story and plot lines. And I love to discuss story ideas with my husband.

When I work on a novel, I usually have one character and a setting in mind.

The parallels between a stage and a book are compelling. You, like all authors, create 'characters' in a 'setting' who speak 'dialogue' encased in 'scenes.' Most importantly, you - like the playwright - have an 'audience.'

When I approach a story or movie, the story is the most important thing.