Roger Rosenblatt Quotes

When you think of a great twist or a red herring or a way of misdirecting the reader, it is good, but you know that they are just tricks at the end of the day, and the way to keep interest is to write characters that people care about.

Fiction demands structures and recognizable shapes. Big surprises only draw attention to the writer's hand.

One of the things I admire about longer stories is the way writers can work with dead time and slower, more idle moments - not only can they feel expansive, they feel lived-in; the unhurried pacing often makes the endings even more resonant and surprising for me.

That's how you get surprises, because what movies are all about is surprises.

In a novel you have to resist the urge to tell everything.

For success, the author must make the reader care about the destiny of the principals, and sustain this anxiety, or suspense, for about 100,000 words.

I feel like if you really know the ending right from the beginning, you can add so many subtleties and little things later that will pay off and be more consistent and more rewarding for the reader.

Listen to great storytellers; slowly, you will learn about voice, timing, tension, structure, climax - all the things you need to tell stories that will capture the imagination of your audience.

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

You can have the greatest characters in the world and write beautifully, but if nothing's happening, the story falls on its face pretty quickly.

The author always knows more than the reader does at the start of a novel, and gradually, they share that knowledge with the reader - that's storytelling.

Beginnings and endings are not interesting; audiences want the high point, which means you've got to get to it and get to it now - get the gun out fast, the clothes off quick.

What keeps readers turning pages is suspense, which you can create using a variety of techniques, including tension, pacing and foreshadowing.

Suspense arises naturally from good writing - it's not a spice to be added separately.

What resonates with me whenever I watch a great movie or TV show is the balance of inevitability and unpredictability. And it's a very delicate balance.

If you're telling a story it's always best not to play the ending.

The short story is a very natural mode of storytelling; most stories can be told quickly. I always think of them as like a tightrope walk - every sentence is a step along the rope, and you can so easily misplace your step and break your neck.

Judgments and secrets are what make a good novel.

I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense.

I think of novels in architectural terms. You have to enter at the gate, and this gate must be constructed in such a way that the reader has immediate confidence in the strength of the building.

Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.

I think Jane Austen builds suspense well in a couple of places, but she squanders it, and she gets to the endgame too quickly. So I will be working on those things.

In plotting a book, my goal is to raise the stakes for the characters and, in so doing, keep the reader mesmerized.

What I do is put my characters into situations that are so precarious there is no way to get out. And then I figure how to get them out.

We like drama. Even in our comedy, we like drama.