“Tragedy massages the human ego even as comedy deflates it. ... Tragedy pits us against large foes and the trip wire is our own character. ... In comedy we fall afoul of one another. Comedy depends on social life, on our behavior in groups. In tragedy you can observe one human against the gods. In comedy it's one human versus other humans and often one man (or woman if I'm writing it) against her own worst impulses.” IfsMenWritingHumansCharacterFallSocialComedyGroupsWorstDependsEgoBehaviorTragedyImpulseOne ManVersusFoeWirePitsSocial LifeMassage Author:Rita Mae Brown
“The key of writing fiction isn't just to remove something that the reader or listener can easily imagine. It's not a matter of being coy, or withholding information. It's allowing for multiple possibilities, recognizing the complexity of human behavior, and making the world of a piece of fiction as marvelously confounding as the world we live in.” WorldWritingHumansMatterFictionPiecesImagineInformationPossibilityKeysReaderBehaviorComplexityRemoveAllowingMultipleListenersHuman BehaviorRecognizingWriting FictionWithholdingConfoundingComplexity Of HumanWithholding Information Author:Peter Turchi
“By this point, it was clear she wasn't interested in continuing the relationship. What publication on earth would continue a relationship with a writer who would refuse to discuss her work with her editors? What publication would continue to publish a writer who attacked it on TV? What publication would continue to publish a writer who lied about it - on TV and to a Washington Post reporter? ... It's true: Ann is fearless, in person and in her writing. But fearlessness isn't an excuse for crappy writing or crappier behavior.” WritingPersonsEarthClearTvsBehaviorRefuseExcuseScaryFearlessPostsEditorsContinuingReportersPublishLiedPublicationFearlessness Author:Jonah Goldberg
“I think anyone who has had a fight and who's a very good observer of the situation and people's behavior is capable of writing a fight. But you do start thinking about writing during the fights that you have with your partner.” PeopleThinkingWritingFightingSituationBehaviorCapableVery GoodPartnersObservers Author:Julie Delpy
“I challenged myself to write/direct a romantic comedy. People trash talk the rom com, but it's one of the oldest cinematic genres, with stellar origins like Twentieth Century and Trouble in Paradise. I think as audiences lost their innocence, the genre lost its suspense. To create suspense, you need obstacles, so I gave my couple an obstacle that very few people ever overcome: their own behavior and their past.” PeopleThinkingNeedsWritingPastLostAudienceComedyTroubleCenturyCoupleBehaviorDirectOvercomingObstaclesInnocenceSuspenseGenreParadiseTrashTwentieth CenturyCinematicStellarTrash Talk Author:Leslye Headland
“From the writing stage, I had envisioned a film that would be bright and light, even if the movie addresses adolescent unrest and self-destructive behavior. Talking about adolescence, I wanted to make a very musical film that was also a love story with a sensorial, sensual dimension and which had a strong emotional impact.” IfsWritingSelfStoriesLightWould BeWantedFilmStrongTalkingStageEmotionalBehaviorImpactMusicalLove StorySensualDimensionsAddressesDestructiveAdolescenceSelf DestructiveUnrestSelf Destructive BehaviorStrong EmotionalDestructive Behavior Author:Alante Kavaite
“I do want to write about social/cultural/historical context. I'm interested in relationships, in character, but within a specific social context. Which is kind of a political thing, I admit that. But it's what I'm interested in, and it's how I believe human behavior is legible.” WantWritingBelieveHumansKindCharacterPoliticalI BelieveSocialBehaviorHistoricalHuman BehaviorHistorical Context Author:Dana Spiotta
“Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation. Affectation itself, beginning with the need to define some sorts of writing as 'good' and other sorts as 'bad' is fearful behavior.” NeedsWritingLetting GoBehaviorFearfulGood Writing Book:On Writing Source: On Writing
“We delude ourselves if we believe that skilled behavior is easy, that it can come about without effort. We forget the years of tuning, of learning and practice it takes to be skilled at even the most fundamental of human activities: eating, walking, talking, reading, and writing. It is tempting to want instant gratification - immediate expert performance and experiential pleasure - but the truth is that this primarily occurs only after considerable amounts of accretion and tuning.” IfsWantWritingYearsBelieveHumansReadingEasyForgetPleasureEffortTalkingPracticeAmountWalkingTruth IsActivityBehaviorEatingPerformancesFundamentalsInstantExpertsGratificationTemptingHuman ActivityReading And WritingTuningInstant Gratification Author:Donald A. Norman
“Writers should be able to fully deduct from their taxes all writing-related expenses, including alcohol, parking tickets, court judgments, fines for lewd public behavior, Zoloft, and cigarettes.” ShouldWritingAbleFineTaxesBehaviorJudgmentCourtIncludingAlcoholRelatedExpensesCigaretteTicketsParking Author:Chuck Palahniuk
“I wasn't writing, I wasn't drawing, and personality-wise, I was just completely arrogant. I'm not trying to be overly apologetic for my behavior - I wasn't evil. The lifestyle I had was one that lent itself to becoming more and more self-involved.” WritingTryingSelfEvilWisePersonalityBecomingInvolvedBehaviorDrawingLifestyleArrogantBecoming MoreApologetic Author:Patti Smith
“I quickly decided my zombies weren't really zombies. It was instead something you called people who were on this club drug, who then exhibited aggressive behaviors. And then like everyone who writes about zombies, I found it was so much fun.” PeopleWritingFoundFunDrugBehaviorDecidedClubsAggressiveZombie Author:Jess Walter
“For a really long time [before writing the novel], I was watching a lot of serial killer movies and I started to wonder if this was a trend and if other people were doing the same thing. That's what happens when you suddenly have a critical perspective on your own behavior.” PeopleIfsWritingLongHappensWonderNovelPerspectiveBehaviorLong TimeCriticalTrendsKillersSerialsSerial KillerReally Long Author:Lucy Corin
“I decided to write Leadership BS because I was irritated by the hypocrisy in the leadership literature and the fact that many of the people writing leadership books exhibited behavior that was precisely the opposite of what they advocated and also what they claimed they did. Stories did not seem to be a good foundation on which to build a science of leadership.” PeopleWritingBookFactsStoriesSeemsLiteratureBehaviorDecidedOppositesFoundationHypocrisyIrritated Author:Jeffrey Pfeffer
“Before I was a parent I was struck by Rilke, who, as you know, didn't go to his daughter's wedding because he was writing a poem that day. That was the ideal for artistic behavior in 1950. That's the way I wanted to live.” KnowsWayWritingWantedParentBehaviorDaughterIdealsArtistic Author:Robert Bly
“There were times in the past that I got angry at some members of the press whose writings greatly disrupted my serious pursuit of art and my behavior as an artist.” WritingArtPastArtistSeriousMembersBehaviorAngryPressesPursuit Author:Yayoi Kusama
“In general, in the matters that relate to theology or behavior, people to one another, Paul was obviously biblically correct. But when he said that women should always cover their hair or that women should not teach men, women should not have leadership positions in the church, women should not speak in the church, I don't' think that those writings of Paul can be extracted by themselves to stand alone. Also, Paul said that women should be subservient to their husbands but if you read a couple of verses down it says husbands should treat their wives as equals.” PeopleIfsThinkingMenShouldWritingSaidMatterSpeakChurchTeachWifePositionHairCoupleHusbandBehaviorTreatsTheologyRelateVersesMen WomenStand AloneSubservient Author:Jimmy Carter
“I suppose I view my behavior in such a unique way. I frame it as an artist and maybe kind of make excuses for it. I suppose I romanticize my own life when I write. I always try to think whether it actually is quite romantic.” ThinkingWritingTryingKindArtistBehaviorUniqueExcuseBe Kind Author:Matthew Healy
“I've moved away from writing about and describing actual experiences of sex work, whether mine or anybody else's, because the culture is obsessed with the behavior of sex workers. They want to figure out why they do what they do and who they are. What I'm trying to do is to shift the focus onto the producers of the anti-sex work discourse: the cops, the feminists, the anti-prostitution people. Those are the people whose behavior needs to change.” PeopleWritingTryingCultureFocusBehaviorMovedFeministProducersObsessedCop Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“I write books because I have always been fascinated by stories and language, and because I love thinking about what makes people tick. Writing a story... 'The Giver' or any other... is simply an exploration of the nature of behavior: why people do what they do, how it affects others, how we change and grow, and what decisions we make along the way.” PeopleThinkingWayLoveWritingBookStoriesAgeLanguageGrowsDecisionBehaviorExplorationFascinatedGiverTickDecisions We Make Author:Lois Lowry
“You should never read just for "enjoyment." Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends' insane behavior, or better yet, your own. Pick "hard books." Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for god's sake, don't let me ever hear you say, "I can't read fiction. I only have time for the truth." Fiction is the truth, fool! Ever hear of "literature"? That means fiction, too, stupid.” ShouldWritingMeanI CanBookHardMotivationalReadingLiteratureFictionStupidFoolBehaviorPicksLet MeSakeInsaneEnjoymentSmarterJudgmentalWriting FictionReading Fiction Author:John Waters