Jean Rhys Quotes

In a story, you have to have a theme and an angle, you have to have a beginning, middle and an end. You have to have a defining moment and kick it to death. You gotta be able to recognize that, by the way. It probably takes experience.

The first lie of fiction is that the author gives some order to the chaos of life: chronological order, or whatever order the author chooses.

A novel requires a certain kind of world-building and also a certain kind of closure, ultimately. Whereas with a short story you have this sense that there are hinges that the reader doesn't see.

There is no other way of writing a novel than to begin at the beginning at to continue to the end.

Unless the story line carries the scenes, the scenes don't really mean anything.

My major allegiance has been to storytelling, not to history.

A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to pour your story into.

It's always the story that interests me.

The point about a great story is that it's got a beginning, a middle and end.

I just want to be a good storyteller.

I care about narrative structure; I care about how stories unfold.

A lot of directors understand everything but the story.

I think a script is great when it starts with the structure and works with the structure without falling into the typical three-act system in which the audience is ahead of the movie. I hate that, but that is like 99% of what I read.

I have always argued, in a good novel, interesting things happen to interesting people.

A subplot is a distinguishing characteristic of the novel; the short story, for example, does not need subplots.

I have struggles in screenwriting that lead me to a third act that's always more or less efficiently wrapped up in a fourth act that's trying to give closure to too many things.

I started as a playwright. Any sort of scriptwriting you do helps you hone your story. You have the same demands of creating a plot, developing relatable characters and keeping your audience invested in your story. My books are basically structured like three-act plays.

It's nice to know when you're a part of a story, it's nice to know at least something about the beginning, middle, and end.

A good scenario doesn't make a good science fiction story - but it's a setting within which a good science fiction story might be told.

Marc Cherry is so good at writing himself into a corner, then writing himself out of that corner. It's really fun to watch that.

I have a plot, but not much happens.

Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough.

The key is a good story. If you have a good story, you have enough emotional beats that you can hit.

There is nothing wrong with just telling the story.

Movies have to handle time very efficiently. They're about stringing scenes together in the present. Novels aren't necessarily about that.