David Mitchell Quotes

Every drama requires a cast. The cast may be so huge, as in Leo Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina,' that the author or editor provides a list of characters to keep them straight. Or it may be an intimate cast of two.

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.

The only thing I knew about novels from a technical point of view was that they should have conflict.

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

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

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 good stories; you have to have a good plot - characters which intertwine with a good plot.

The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of.

All I had, originally, were pages of Nolan's dialogue. I think his character serves the story in a nice way. He's a Greek chorus for the goings-on in the Hamptons.

Anything with a good story and characters I think would be great.

Novelists have to be adept at controlling the flow of information, and, most crucially, they have to be in charge of the narrative.

My work as a screenwriter has influenced my fiction. Writing screenplays forces you to consider many elements regarding story structure and other narrative devices that can be used to enhance the infinitely more complex demands of a novel.

I've never sat down and thought about the difference between plot and theme. To me, that's never been important.

You can't write just anything. Your story needs structure.

Judgments and secrets are what make a good novel.

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.

Characters who are on screen from start to finish are not necessarily the ones who have the greatest impact.

In fiction workshops, we tend to focus on matters of verisimilitude largely because such issues are so much easier to talk about than the failure of imagination.

I love writing letters. In order to write a novel in first person, I think I needed an addressee.

Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story.

Think 'Game of Thrones.' In the old days, this sort of show might be considered bad writing. It doesn't really seem to be moving toward a crisis or climax, it has no true protagonist, and it's structured less like a TV show or a movie than a soap opera.

I love a really good storyline.