Ken Blanchard Quotes

No one reads to hear someone complain about the weather or how poorly their children are behaving. You have to give the readers a reason to turn the page. As a writer you have to invite someone to turn the page. And that is a skill you have to refine. That is why you have to read. You have to read to learn what it is that makes people turn the page.

They (fables) teach us that human beings learn and absorb ideas and concepts through narrative, through stories, not through lessons or theoretical speeches.

Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.

I got the script of Imperial Dreams from my agent. I was at home having a full English breakfast and the email came through in my junkmail. Funnily enough, I was paying a T-Mobile bill, so I was able to see the email. After that I was engaged in the story. I was scared - fearful - because the story doesn't just penetrate one level in terms of narrative; it goes that level after.

I like that you can open up any one of my books anywhere and immediately be lost. I just love them so much.

We love bringing verisimilitude to audiences, hopefully having experiences you'll never have.

My biggest lesson ... was to try and create narrators that were believable. ...so the listener becomes really invested in the story or the song.

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

If I ever teach writing again, I’d say the first lesson is to listen.

Good storytelling is harder than it sounds, but the easy part is that everyone has the ability to do it. ...Tap into it.

I think a good story, well told is a good story, well told, whether you're watching the episodes all in a row or not. However, it might be fun to take a closer look at how the previous episode ends and how that end relates to the beginning of the next episode.

Art is created to make us, to make our passage through the world better, fruitful - and I would say that every story in the end, if it is good, tells us something. This is actually what I meant when I said a novelist is a teacher. Which is why I am constantly dealing with "didactic". Now a teacher in the sense I use it is not somebody who has the profession of standing in front of children, with a piece of chalk in his hand scribbling on the blackboard. That is not the teacher I have in mind. The teacher I have in mind is something less tangible.

All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create. They teach the morality we live by. They teach it much more effectively than moral precepts and instructions.

A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story of Poe's will impress upon the mind a more vivid notion of powerful and correct description and narration than will ten dry chapters of a bulky textbook.

I seldom get into the mood of the story. It's acting. I go in, I act, I quit. I don't take anything away from it.

At the end of the day, I really go with my personal taste and with what's on the page in terms of character. But beyond that, there's a complexity about the scripts I tend to respond to. I've not lost my curiosity about how the world functions. And a script that can embody that and thematically explore bigger questions in a way which seems fresh is likely to get my attention. Frankly, I also have an eye for what will appeal to an audience, as opposed to a self-indulgent exercise that isn't taking the audience into account.

The best basketball announcer is one who allows you to close your eyes.

Book after book, I get hooked, every time the writer talks to me like a friend.

Writing is one way to achieve enchantment.

I have a very healthy appetite for good writing and good characters. Having weak writing is my biggest fear.

People just want good stories.

Everyone wants the two characters to be together, but then once they are, it's not that much fun.

Entertainment and learning are not opposites; entertainment may be the most effective mode of learning.

Too many writers think that all you need to do is write well-but that's only part of what a good book is. Above all, a good book tells a good story. Focus on the story first. Ask yourself, 'Will other people find this story so interesting that they will tell others about it?' Remember: A bestselling book usually follows a simple rule, 'It's a wonderful story, wonderfully told'; not, 'It's a wonderfully told story.'

The telling of a good story, especially one that is real and true, is always exciting.