Miguel Syjuco Quotes

Writing means sharing. It's part of the human condition to want to share things - thoughts, ideas, opinions.

I enjoy stories that can spark a conversation.

Since I'm not a journalist, I talk about issues that encourage an interchange of ideas through conversation while also being entertaining.

Good dialogue is very important.

I could come up with 50 stories that I am thinking about.

Kevin Smith is a very challenging conversationalist and Jay has many great stories.

If you want somebody to tell you a story, one of the most easiest and effective ways is if you're telling them a story.

I'm interested in character and dialogue and exchange of ideas.

I think I'm a born storyteller. Inspiration is all around me. I can read a newspaper article and come up with an idea for a book.

The very essence of modern life is the opportunity for people everywhere to speak, hear, persuade, change their minds, know what others are thinking, and think for themselves.

Philosophy is a performance sport - you have to play it with somebody back and forth.

I think making a documentary gets you out and about more, with people. With stand-up, you're talking at people. With documentaries you're talking with people, and you're listening a lot more.

'The Chairs are Where the People Go' was told to me by my friend Misha Glouberman; I typed as he talked. In 'How Should a Person Be?' the transcribed dialogues between me and my friends help form the structure of the book.

I enjoy a challenge or provocation, something to think about, to talk about after it's done.

...every monologue sooner or later becomes a discussion.

I think it's important to find projects that evoke people into conversation. It's like reading a good book. You want to talk about it.

All the information you need can be given in dialogue.

I think a little menace is fine to have in a story. For one thing, it's good for the circulation.

Nothing frustrates me more than someone who reads something of mine or anyone else's and says, angrily, 'I don't buy it.' Why are they angry? Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head—even if in the end you conclude that someone else's head is not a place you'd really like to be.

A novel is, hopefully, the starting point of a conversation, one in which the author engages readers and asks that they see things from a different point of view than they might otherwise.

People write to me all the time, and I write back.

I write for the same reason I read: to find out what's going to happen.

I've been approached after shows from people who said, 'I don't agree with anything you said, but I laughed the whole way through.' That's still a little strange to me. Like, nothing, really? But at the same time, that's what happens in a conversation.

When you're a storyteller, part of the process of storytelling is the kind of communion you form with the audience to whom you're telling your story. If some segment of the audience doesn't like that story, it doesn't feel good.

No, the thing is, we all love storytelling, and as a writer you get to tell stories all the time.