“I had hoped to be a poet, and for a long time I tried to write poetry. My first published pieces were poems.” Quote by Norman Lock
“Theatre aside, my penchant for the extended monologue began with my reading of Browning's dramatic monologues, in high school. My inclination to adopt the form for prose was confirmed by Richard Howard's book of dramatic monologues, Untitled Subjects.” BookSchoolFormReadingSubjectsHigh SchoolTheatreDramaticProseInclinationMonologues Author:Norman Lock
“As a practical matter, I like the dramatic monologue for its compelling intimacy. To be inside one's character, to register his or her every vagrant thought, emotion, and response - the first-person viewpoint grants this privilege and immediacy.” FirstsPersonsMatterCharacterEmotionResponsePrivilegePracticalsIntimacyDramaticGrantsCompellingFirst PersonRegisterViewpointsMonologuesImmediacyVagrants Author:Norman Lock
“I used to teach writing in a federal prison, and for my students' benefit, I would liken the narrative use of this highly personal point of view to a boxer's getting in close to his opponent.” WritingUseUsedViewsTeachStudentsBenefitsPrisonPoint Of ViewNarrativeOpponentsBoxers Author:Norman Lock
“A first-person voice helps to ensure the uniformity and cohesiveness of the narrative; it gathers unto itself incidents and characters in its unstoppable progress toward the story's end.” FirstsPersonsEndsCharacterHelpingStoriesVoiceProgressNarrativeIncidentsFirst PersonUniformityUnstoppableCohesiveness Author:Norman Lock
“The persona in my stories may be truer to my "real" self than any alleged objective, factual "I" that I could replicate for the purposes of storytelling.” MayRealSelfStoriesPurposeObjectivesStorytellingPersonaFactualReal SelfReplicate Author:Norman Lock
“Metaphysics notwithstanding, I also insert myself in my fictions for no loftier purpose than to give me pleasure: to see myself performing onstage.” GivingPurposePleasureFictionGive MePerformingMetaphysicsInsert Author:Norman Lock
“I do believe we are actors in our own dramas, which, moment by moment, we ourselves write; that we are characters in our own fictions or those devised for us by someone or something else.” WritingBelieveMomentsCharacterActorsFictionDrama Author:Norman Lock
“Because of an instability at my own core, it comforts me to live, fixed, within a story. If reading is our consolation for having been allotted only one life, I find that writing oneself into a fictional world is even more comforting.” IfsWorldWritingStoriesReadingMy OwnComfortOneselfCoreFixedConsolationComfortingInstabilityFictional Worlds Author:Norman Lock
“I very much like the idea of the unreliable narrator. Shaping my fictions as monologues - by introducing the "I" - allows me to be as unreliable as I like.” IdeasFictionIntroducingMonologuesUnreliableNarrators Author:Norman Lock
“I admitted that I did not understand life. What I meant was that I am bewildered by human hearts and motivations, including my own.” HumansHeartMotivationMy OwnIncludingHuman HeartBewildered Author:Norman Lock