Patrick Lencioni Quotes

I can excuse everything but boredom. Boring people don't have to stay that way.

It's a comedy thriller, brilliantly written and it's full of twists and turns at every page. When I was reading it I was desperate to get to the end to find out what happens, it really hooks you.

I want to tell a story that makes the reader always want to see what will happen next.

It's not often a thriller keeps me wound up as well as 'Headhunters' did. I knew I was being manipulated and didn't care. It was a pleasure to see how well it was being done.

Not being boring is quite a challenge.

The audience wants to be attracted not by the critics, but by a great story. You must deliver to the audience emotion - and when I say emotion, I mean suspense, drama, love.

If you come across as boring or monotone, you're going to lose your audience.

Series Two of 'The Paradise' is meaty and thoroughly entertaining... and yeah, you're in for a good thrill ride!

If you're writing a thriller, mystery, Western or adventure-driven book, you'd better keep things moving rapidly for the reader. Quick pacing is vital in certain genres. It hooks readers, creates tension, deepens the drama, and speeds things along.

Each book will have a lot of cliffhangers, because I like that.

Why, for example, do the great writers use anticipation instead of surprise? Because surprise is merely an instrument of the unusual, whereas anticipation of a consequence enlarges our understanding of what is happening.

The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end.

You try to find things that are challenging and interesting and hopefully it will be the same to the audience.

Nothing bores me more than books where you read two pages and you know exactly how it's going to come out. I want twists and turns that surprise me, characters that have a difficult time and that I don't know if they're going to live or die.

I believe that given the audience attention level, we could do an even more compelling 90 minutes.

In TV, you always feel you are standing on the tracks of an oncoming train.

Suspense is very important. Even though this is humor and they're short stories, that theory of building suspense is still there.

I think a writer's first job is to entertain, even in novels: to tell a compelling story that pulls the reader along toward an end. At the same time, the best stories are character-driven.

If you can actually get someone to sit on the edge of their seat and feel nervous if there's a knock at the door, then you've done something pretty terrific as a writer.

We want a story that starts out with an earthquake and works its way up to a climax.

I believe the most important thing you can do in any kind of novel is to make your reader want to go on with it and want to know what happens next.

Tension is all about, 'Why is this taking so long?' The interesting thing about that is that it's also the tension of comedy. The tension of drama and comedy is similar, and that's why usually you can get a big laugh in a really tense moment because people need that release.

I'm attracted to things that are challenging and fun and interesting, and it certainly seems that audiences enjoy them as well.

What's most galvanizing for me is the opportunity to be topical and relevant and entertaining. That's the holy grail.

Freshness is important. If a game is fresh, new, intriguing, challenging, and enchanting, it will sell, and sell well.