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Quote by Annie Proulx

“In a rough way the short story writer is to the novelist as a cabinetmaker is to a house carpenter.”

Author

Annie Proulx, born on August 22, 1935, is an American journalist and novelist known for her distinctive narrative style and profound portrayals of life in the American West. more

“I would also suggest that any aspiring writer begin with short stories. These days, I meet far too many young writers who try to start off with a novel right off, or a trilogy, or even a nine-book series. That's like starting in at rock climbing by tackling Mt. Everest. Short stories help you learn your craft.”

“A short story is confined to one mood, to which everything in the story pertains. Characters, setting, time, events, are all subject to the mood. And you can try more ephemeral, more fleeting things in a story - you can work more by suggestion - than in a novel. Less is resolved, more is suggested, perhaps.”

Trying Character Stories Novel Subjects Events Mood Setting Settings Insightful Short Story Suggestions Fleeting Confined Ephemeral

Author:Eudora Welty

“If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced that there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes but by no means always find the way to do it.”

Ifs Way Feels Writing May Mean Persons Important Sometimes Stories Seems Able Lying Magic Reader Convinced Urges Insightful Formulas Short Story Recipes Story Writing

Author:John Steinbeck

“The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side.”

Whole Stories Sides Whole Life Great Things Insightful Short Story

Author:Emma Donoghue

“Short stories are fiction's R & D department, and failed or less-than-conclusive experiments are not just to be expected but to be hoped for.”

Stories Fiction Expected Experiments Department Insightful Short Story

Author:Walter Kirn

“When seriously explored, the short story seems to me the most difficult and disciplining form of prose writing extant. Whatever control and technique I may have I owe entirely to my training in this medium.”

Writing May Stories Seems Form Difficult Training Technique Mediums Prose Insightful Short Story Prose Writing

Author:Truman Capote

“In short stories there's more permission to be elliptical. You can have image-logic, or it's almost like a poem in that you can come to a lot of meanings within a short space.”

Stories Space Logic Insightful Short Story Permission

Author:Karen Russell

“Short stories do not say this happened and this happened and this happened. They are a microcosm and a magnification rather than a linear progression.”

Writing Stories Happened Insightful Short Story Progression Linear Microcosm Magnification

Book:The Wilful Eye (Tales from the Tower Volume One)

Source: The Wilful Eye (Tales from the Tower Volume One)

“Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order.”

Firsts Stories Order Weight Insightful Short Story Pulling

Author:Tobias Wolff

“I want my stories to be something about life that causes people to say, not, oh, isn't that the truth, but to feel some kind of reward from the writing, and that doesn't mean that it has to be a happy ending or anything, but just that everything the story tells moves the reader in such a way that you feel you are a different person when you finish.”

People Way Want Feels Writing Kind Mean Persons Different Stories Moving Causes Reader Rewards Insightful Short Story Happy Endings

Author:Alice Munro

Quote by Annie Proulx

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