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Quote by Catherine Brady

“I have to trick myself into writing a story - impose some arbitrary constraint to distract me from the constraints of my past habits or my fear that I don't have much to say.”

Quote by Catherine Brady

Author

Catherine Brady

Catherine Brady, born in 1955, is a talented short story writer. Her works are renowned for their profound emotions and unique narrative style, which have won her the admiration of readers worldwide. more

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“I've always hated quotation marks: they're ugly on the page and they classify the text for you, putting dialogue in one box and narration in another.”

Pages Mark Boxes Ugly Dialogue Hated Quotations Narration Quotation Marks

Author:Catherine Brady

“When I decided to stop using quotation marks, it presented technical challenges: you have to conceive of dialogue differently and structure it differently for this to work. So I had a new problem, which makes writing interesting again.”

Writing Problem Challenges Interesting Decided Mark Structure Dialogue Quotations Quotation Marks

Author:Catherine Brady

“I wanted to let form lead my thinking, and repetition always confronts you with the interesting problem of how to break out of a cycle that seems so deterministic, which was germane to the story's concerns.”

Thinking Stories Problem Seems Wanted Form Interesting Break Concern Cycles Repetition Break Out

Author:Catherine Brady

“Chekhov used to correspond with aspiring writers, and once he gave this advice to Maxim Gorky when he was encouraging him to pare his wordy sentences: "When someone expends the least amount of motion on a given action, that's grace." The short story, by definition, embodies this notion of grace, because it requires such forceful compression to achieve its effects.”

Stories Action Used Given Grace Achieve Advice Effects Amount Notion Definitions Sentences Short Story Maxims Chekhov Aspiring Writers Compression

Author:Catherine Brady

“I love the way a story's ending can force you to read backwards. It's as if you are slowly adjusting a kaleidoscope until a random scattering of colored crystals suddenly falls into a beautiful symmetrical pattern.”

Ifs Way Stories Beautiful Fall Force Patterns Backwards Crystals Adjusting Kaleidoscope Symmetrical

Author:Catherine Brady

“When you write, you're supposed to go stand somewhere else for a while, see things from a perspective that's not in line with your own reflexive truths.”

Writing Lines Perspective Somewhere Else

Author:Catherine Brady

“You have to be able to play: this is spontaneous interaction, and it flexes all the creative muscles you need as a writer. And empathy is one of those muscles.”

Needs Play Able Creative Empathy Muscles Interaction Spontaneous

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“To have six billion people on Earth, two billion of whom are carrying around a warped view of you? That has to register.”

People Two Earth Views Six Billions Register

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“The collaborator has to be someone who understands that his role is to help you articulate what you want, but at the same time is not just going to be mechanically obeying, but adding to, supplementing, and coming up with stuff.”

Want Helping Stuff Roles What You Want Obeying Collaborators

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“The past is history, the future's a mystery.”

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