Frank Herbert Quotes

And in stories, endings matter.

When you're writing a story, you're creating something of an artificial ending.

It is nice when things end. That is what stories do - they end. It is hard to write endings and it is hard to come to the end of things, but I think when it is done right, it is a very satisfying way to appreciate something.

The great thing about writing compared to life is getting to tie things up.

A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because it opens.

The last paragraph, in which you tell what the story is about, is almost always best left out.

I often find that writers who disavow the importance of an ending are just not very good at endings.

The form is always integral to the expression of the theme or to the sheer telling of the story, and sometimes the right form is apparent to me from the outset and sometimes it isn't.

If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.

It is not enough for a story to flow. It has to kind of trickle and glint as it crosses over the stones of the bare facts.

Endings are the hardest part. I find there's a great relief that at the end of every episode, every hour of TV you produce, while you want a proper and satisfying ending, it doesn't have to end The Story, in capital letters.

I learned to separate the story from the writing, probably the most important thing that any storyteller has to learn-that there are a thousand right ways to tell a story, and ten million wrong ones, and you're a lot more likely to find one of the latter than the former your first time through the tale.

According to Chekhov," Tamaru said, rising from his chair, "once a gun appears in a story, it has to be fired." "Meaning what?" "Meaning, don't bring unnecessary props into a story. If a pistol appears, it has to be fired at some point. Chekhov liked to write stories that did away with all useless ornamentation.

Don’t try to write a novel. Write short stories and then figure out how to connect them.

Short stories do not say this happened and this happened and this happened. They are a microcosm and a magnification rather than a linear progression.

When I start to write, I see my stories as a kind of movie. For instance, I ask myself, "What kind of opening do I want for this book?"

When you're telling a story, you've got to give details.

Every story we remember is a novel. Novels make things more universal.

I want to do film and TV. I want to make good stories. I want to write; I want to be more involved.

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

Because I come from the theater, I use the images of the theater and of movies a great deal when I write. I see the story in my head. I have to break down the outline of a story first. I have to know where I'm going. Usually I have a good beginning and a good ending, and then I think, "Now I have to find my way through it."

I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story.

Every story teaches me how to write it. Unfortunately, it doesn't teach me how to write the next one.

You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money's in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed.

A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.