Home / Quotes / Quote by Neal Stephenson

Quote by Neal Stephenson

“I'm strictly a one-project-at-a-time kind of guy. If I came up with a compelling idea for a different book while working on a project, I'd probably abandon the first project and go with the new idea.”

Quote by Neal Stephenson

Author

Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson is a renowned science fiction author known for his complex narrative structures and profound thematic explorations. His works often blend historical, technological, and sociological elements, with 'Snow Crash' and 'The Diamond Age' being particularly notable. more

You May Also Like

“It would be quite unusual for me to get deep into a project and then shitcan it. One of the advantages of having done this for a while is that I have a better sense than I used to of when something is or isn't working. Until I developed that sense, this was a pretty dicey career for me, both in terms of paying the rent, and emotional wear and tear.”

Done Would Be Used Term Careers Tears Emotional Projects Advantage Unusual

Author:Neal Stephenson

“But I'm not a small-literary-novel kind of guy, and once I'd developed the world in the first couple of hundred pages, I felt that there was potential here to go on and write an engaging story set in that world. So that's what I did. This probably ruins things both for the people who want small literary novels and for those who want action-packed epics, but anyway, it's what I wrote.”

People World Want Writing Firsts Kind Stories Action Guy Felt Novel Goes On Couple Pages Hundred Ruins Epic Engaging

Author:Neal Stephenson

“Early on, I settled on the first-person strategy as a way to deal with exposition and world-description issues. As long as the book is, it could have been far longer had I gone with an omniscient third-person narrator, or multiple point-of-view characters, since either of those would have enabled me to impart much more detailed information about the history and geography of the world.”

“We see everything from the narrator's point of view, so exposition about the world is limited to what impinges directly on him and the story he's telling. Considering how old the world is, we learn very little about its history, which I think is a good thing.”

Thinking World Littles Stories Views Good Things Point Of View Considering Narrators

Author:Neal Stephenson

“In the room where I work, I have a chalkboard, and as I'm going along, I write the made-up words on it. A few feet from that chalkboard is a copy of the full 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, to which I refer frequently as a source of ideas and word roots.”

Writing Made Ideas Rooms Feet Source Roots Copies Volume Dictionary Oxford Chalkboards

Author:Neal Stephenson

“Whenever I get distracted or bored, my eyes wander over to that chalkboard and I read the words. Some of them grow on me, and others annoy me. I attack the latter with eraser and chalk, and keep nudging at them until I like the way they look and sound. Others never make the cut at all and simply get erased. Perhaps one day I will sell these on eBay to RPG players who need names for characters or alien races.”

Way Needs Looks Character Eye Names Grows Sound Race Cutting Player One Day Sells Wander Aliens Bored Latter Annoying Distracted Chalk Ebay Erasers Chalkboards Rpgs

Author:Neal Stephenson

“I think that this vein is close to being mined out already, but I'll say that my knowledge of and talent for linguistics are quite limited and I'm not aware of being a hell of a lot more interested in that topic than I am in others.”

Thinking Hell Talent Topics Veins Linguistics

Author:Neal Stephenson

“Coming up with lectures is a huge amount of work. I was willing to do one lecture for Gresham because I was honored to have been invited, but to create lectures for a class would probably require that I shut down everything else and concentrate on lectures for a couple of years. Then there would be many, many other skills that I'd have to learn, such as how to sit through a faculty meeting, how to deal with students, etc. It is really not in the cards for me. It's not who I am or what I do. I'm a novelist.”

Years Has Beens Would Be Deals Class Students Willing Huge Amount Couple Skills Meetings Who I Am Cards Novelists Etc Faculty Honored Invited Lectures

Author:Neal Stephenson

“I try to find a style that matches the book. In the Baroque Cycle, I got infected with the prose style of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, which is my favorite era. It's recent enough that it is easy to read - easier than Elizabethan English - but it's pre-Victorian and so doesn't have the pomposity that is often a problem with 19th-century English prose. It is earthy and direct and frequently hilarious.”

Trying Book Enough Problem Easy Century Style Easier Late Direct My Favorite Eras Prose Cycles 19th Century Victorian 18th Century Baroque Elizabethan Pomposity

Author:Neal Stephenson

“So a lot of what you see in the Baroque Cycle is me wanting to be one of those guys. In the case of Anathem, I needed something that was more formal, less flashy, as if it had been translated from the classical language of another planet, but enlivened with slang terms that a teenage narrator would enjoy throwing around.”

Ifs Guy Language Enjoy Term Cases Planets Needed Cycles Throwing Formal Teenage Narrators Slang Baroque Flashy

Author:Neal Stephenson