Jess Row Quotes

I'm one of those writers who started off writing novels and came to writing short stories later, partly because I didn't have the right ideas, partly because I think that short stories are more difficult. I think learning to write short stories also made me attracted toward a paring down of the novel form.

The writer of stories or of novels settles on men and imitates them; he exhausts the possibilities of his characters.

While writing a novel, I don't read anything new in fiction. I am too engrossed.

Well, to be honest I think I'm a better short story writer than a novelist. Novels I find very hard, hours and hours, weeks and weeks, of conscious thought - whereas short stories slip out painlessly in a few days.

I'm not nearly smart enough or imaginative enough to tackle the novel form. Never happen.

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

But at the same time, I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories because they turn into novels.

What I like to write about is stuff I know. I don't think I could write a novel. I don't think I have it in me to come up with those kinds of characters.

A lot of journalists are talented enough to write a mystery novel, and I would say that most of the top-end mystery writers actually started out as reporters. But there is more to it than just the writing; there's a learning process, and most journalists aren't willing to do it.

I cannot write a novel because I cannot work in continuity. My works are more abstract, may be, I will try short story writing.

When I was writing my first novel, 'Elizabeth is Missing,' I was writing the only novel I had ever written and writing about the only protagonist I'd ever written about. Because of this, I didn't think of her as a construct. Maud was real.

Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters' theses.

There are vast differences between scripts and stories, of course. Few fiction writers would want to give up the opportunity to explore how the minds of their characters work, or to set aside the opportunity to provide necessary background exposition in a succinct fashion.

What we know about writing the novel is the novel.

Every story teaches me how to write it. Unfortunately, it doesn't teach me how to write the next one.

You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money's in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed.

Jane's stories are extremely sensible. Then Diana puts too many murders into hers. She says most of the time she doesn't know what to do with the people so she kills them off to get rid of them.

Before I studied story, I was trying to write a novel, and it was terrible. It wasn't going anywhere, and I couldn't figure out what I was trying to do. It was really hard; much harder than I thought it was going to be. Now that I've studied story, I think I'd have a different approach and maybe I could actually get it done.

The only way, I think, to learn to write short stories is to write them, and then try to discover what you have done.

If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden.

I liked 35 and in both my novels that is the age of the lead characters. I tried making them my age but they just seemed to keep moaning about stuff.

To be honest, I found the 3D in 'Avatar' to be inconsistent and while ground breaking in many respects, sometimes I thought it overwhelmed the storytelling. Technology aside, I wish 'Avatar' had been more original in its storytelling.

I am also working on a couple of short stories for anthologies. This is new to me and I'm enjoying it.

I write and write and write, and then I edit it down to the parts that I think are amusing, or that help the storyline, or I'll write a notebook full of ideas of anecdotes or story points, and then I'll try and arrange them in a way that they would tell a semi-cohesive story.

My temperament is not geared to that of a novelist.