Harry Chapin Quotes

When I think of the happiness that is in store for me, every sorrow, every pain becomes dear to me.

Joy came always after pain.

All stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending, and if they're any good, the ending is a beginning.

therefore i live for today- certain of finding at sunrise guidance and strength for the way. power for each moment of weakness, hope for each moment of pain, comfort for every sorrow, sunshine and joy after rain!

When well told, a story captured the subtle movement of change. If a novel was a map of a country, a story was the bright silver pin that marked the crossroads.

I enjoy both TV writing and novel writing, and they are very similar. The goal is to entertain and amuse the audience, and I subscribe to this P.G. Wodehouse piece of advice: "Try to give pleasure with every sentence."

There is a reason there is no such thing as a folk writer. But to be a writer you have learn what it takes to captivate a reader in order to make them turn the page. And in order to learn that, you have to read.

To enjoy the rainbow, first enjoy the rain.

Do not worry about whether or not the sun will rise. Be prepared to enjoy it.

Many an irritating fault, many an unlovely oddity, has come of a hard sorrow.

A good story is like a bitter pill, with the sugar coating inside of it.

Don’t worry about me handling the pain," I say. "I’ve had a lot of practice.

Pain is a byproduct of life. That’s the truth. Life sometimes sucks. That’s true for everyone. But if you don’t face the pain and the suck, you don’t ever get the other things either. Laughter. Joy. Love. Pain passes, but those things are worth fighting for. Worth dying for.

Typically, the performance has a story - a beginning, the crescendo and the end.

You can't rely on the acting to tell the story.

A performance can have amazing visuals and special effects, but it has to tell a good story, even if that story isn't original.

The most important thing is the script.

The whole point of making a film is to tell a story. That seems to be forgotten. Many films today just rely on special effects and they have an explosion every five minutes. Who needs it? It's rather repetitious.

A plot without action is like pasta without garlic, like Dolly Parton without cleavage, and like a writer without his similes.

We see films all the time, whether they have access to all kinds of intellectual property or artifacts, and the one thing that they don't get is story. So I think whether you're talking about a biopic or an action film or a science-fiction film that has all the CGI in the world, if you're not trying to connect with an audience, it doesn't really matter.

Every day has its great grief or its small anxiety. ... One cloud is dispelled, another forms. There is hardly one day in a hundred of real joy and bright sunshine.

The story is the only thing that's important. Everything else will take care of itself. It's like what bowlers say. You hear writers talk about character or theme or mood or mode or tense or person. But bowlers say, if you make the spares, the strikes will take care of themselves. If you can tell a story, everything else becomes possible. But without story, nothing is possible, because nobody wants to hear about your sensitive characters if there's nothing happening in the story. And the same is true with mood. Story is the only thing that's important.

I'm not trying to convey a message, I'm just trying to tell a story.