Kurt Busiek Quotes

It's about listening first, then selling.

Neal Stephenson handles exposition better than anybody else. I keep trying to learn his tricks, but every time I duck into his pages, I get lost in the stories all over again and forget that I'm a writer.

What I learned most was how to tell a story in 15 seconds or 30 seconds or 60 seconds - to have some kind of goal of what to try to do and make it happen in that time.

Being a comfortable public speaker, which involves easily being able to go off-script, strongly signals competence.

Learn the art of the pitch and of messaging.

When I write, I'm constantly putting myself in the position of someone else as I write using myriad voices; I think that's a life skill all people should learn.

I like the performing. And interviews, even. And the stuff that's not sitting in a room by yourself with empty paper. But I never loved writing, to tell you the truth.

If you can talk, you can write.

Most young people haven't used their storytelling skills since they were 8 or 9 or 10 and wanted to persuade Mom and Dad to take them to the ball game.

The special skills necessary for being a storyteller are really very simple. I actually talked about them in a book of mine called 'Tell Me a Tale.' Those basic skills are to listen, to observe, to remember, and to share.

Trust me, I have never written a speech in my life, and if I have my way, I never will.

To imagine yourself inside another person... is what a storywriter does in every piece of work; it is his first step, and his last too, I suppose.

As a storyteller, you have the story that you tell, and you have the way you can tell it, and both are equally important.

I don't do issue writing. I do character writing.

I was born in the era of the novel. I've written many, as well as collections of poetry, and essays for mouthing off. I've written to inches, word-counts, page-counts, even the sonnet and the screenplay (which I call a plot poem). I write narrative. That's it. I just want to tell it.

What you're normally doing as a writer is trying to find the narrative.

Ronald Reagan has a story for every occasion. Bill Clinton has an excuse for every occasion.

As a writer, you get to bring attention to something without preaching. I don't believe in being didactic. So if you dramatize something, you automatically bring attention to it if people read it.

Suspense is one of the ways you persuade a reader to become engaged and stay engaged with your work.

To be a writer you should read, write and talk to people, hear their knowledge, hear their problems. Be a good listener. The rest will come.

There is no sale without the story; no knockout without the setup.

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in.

You could tell he (President Ronald Reagan) was an old radio guy. He never once looked at the television monitor.

If you just want to be a writer, I don't care, for pitching, for writing dialogue, you should take an improvisation class. It's super important.

Fiction is an illusion wrought with many small, conventionally symbolic marks, triggering visions in the minds of others