Cynthia Kadohata Quotes

Quite often, little germs of ideas have come from something that I've observed or someone's told me. The process of it becoming fiction is expanding and extending it: stretching the rubber band of reality.

I was totally absorbed in the real world, the politics, the history, the news, and I just couldn't find my way into the fictional world... When I finally could return to writing the novel, it was in fits and starts.

Each book first begins with a little idea.

The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning.

I like that it's challenging - that when I'm writing, I feel as if I'm pouring everything I have into the story until there's nothing left and I have to begin thinking about a new world and set of circumstances to research and explore.

I sometimes feel as if ideas for a novel kind of pop up like numbers in a bingo tumbler, and then they're ready to go.

I can't imagine writing a novel without some sound. When you're facing a few hundred blank pages, silence can be cold.

If somebody says that they want to write a book but do not know what to write about, they will never write a book.

I'm often asked how I get ideas for my stories. The answer is there's no single way; every story is different.

Whenever I write a novel, most of the time it starts with barest slip of an idea.

I know some writers that have a million novel ideas, but I don't.

I remember how I would wait for a play idea. I wasted a tremendous amount of time. I didn't realize that ideas could be made into movies or novels.

I really want to write another novel, and I am trying to come up with what the story will be. As I learned with 'Groundswell,' I can't force it; I just have to wait for it to come to me.

It is very enjoyable, writing a story. You get this idea. It takes hold of you. And then you spend day and night thinking about how to do it. And then you do it. And much later, you think, 'Oh, yes. That's an interesting question.'

The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes.

How much research I have to do depends on the nature of the story. For fantasy, none at all.

I sort of love reading the scripts and going, 'Oh wow, what a great idea. I never would have thought of that.'

I don't stare at a sheet of paper and try to think of a good word to use. I try to see where the story should go.

Having imagination it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that if you were unimaginative would take you only a minute.

Being a playwright is like the equivalent of doing a jigsaw puzzle that has 1,500 pieces, and it's a jigsaw of a blue sky. Not a cloud in sight.

For me, it would be pointless to write a novel that I knew I could complete within a specific length of time. I could do that only by repeating something I had done before, and I've never wanted to do that.

Weirdly, often the more I write, the more ideas I have.

If I'm writing and a chapter isn't coming, I just move ahead.

I do see myself as someone who has a lot of story ideas.

I don't sit down in front of my computer screen and think, 'Right. Today I shall begin a story set in this or that period of history.' I just get ideas from the world around me.