Chris Claremont Quotes

Doing graphic novels is cool! It's fun! You get to write something, and then see it visually page by page, panel by panel, working with the artist, you get to see it fleshed out.

Picture books are the distillation of an idea, and you have to use just the right words. I love that, and I try to use a lot of action verbs.

The things that I'm interested in directing are fiction, because then you're not married to a particular reality.

At first, I see pictures of a story in my mind. Then creating the story comes from asking questions of myself. I guess you might call it the 'what if - what then' approach to writing and illustration.

Quite casually I wander into my plot, poke around with my characters for a while, then amble off, leaving no moral proved and no reader improved.

It's funny with fiction - once you cut something, it hasn't happened anymore.

I never make notes; just a few small details when I'm writing, but nothing much. The plot is never written down. I will tell the story to myself, but I won't plan it. I'll speak the narrative in my head for a while.

It's all about letting the story take over.

For English assignments I was constantly coming up with these strange adventure stories... But I actually wanted to be an artist, or maybe work in the comic book industry.

I think stories can grow out of the visual. It can be an engine for literacy.

Novelists have always had complete freedom to pretty much tell their story any way they saw fit. And that's what I'm trying to do.

When I'm writing, I'm creating the story and its character with words. I'm thinking about what the pictures will be like, but I never begin to sketch. The pictures are all in my head.

I have been writing songs and poems since I was a little girl. I started writing short scripts, which evolved into the idea for a book.

The great thing about making picture books is that you can make absolutely anything you want happen. It's a bit like making a film, but you don't need lots of money for actors and costumes - you just need pens, paper, and your imagination.

As I got farther and farther along in the series I did less and less preparation. I didn't use outlines or sketches. I just had a vague idea of what I wanted to tell and then the dialogue just came to me as I was inking the page.

I don't have a great eye for detail. I leave blanks in all of my stories. I leave out all detail, which leaves the reader to fill in something better.

The fiction writer in me likes gaps in stories because I can jump into that gap and try to suggest something.

If the script is telling the story well, that is your inspiration, and you do not need to go somewhere else.

I should say, I don't write about myself or my life. So for me, in fiction, it's always been about what I can dream up, that feels far away from me.

The more ways you can tell a story and paint a picture, the better it is.

I'm always excited about stories that allow me to explore a character and create interesting stories and worlds that we haven't seen before.

When I got into the second half of 'Dragon Ball,' I had already become more interested in thinking up the story then in drawing the pictures. Then I started to not place much emphasis on the pictures.

Sometimes journalists ask me, "What's the message?" There is no message. I think that fiction should not be trying to give messages. Just tell a story.

Writing children's books gives a writer a very strong sense of narrative drive.

I had a brother who was bullying me to write something because we wanted to make our own movies. So it was out of necessity in the beginning. Over time, I began to see that I could create the roles I wanted to play rather than just waiting around.