“We sat around on a hotel balcony with a bottle of wine and tried to figure out how you would go about blowing up a planet. That's the kind of conversations science fiction writers have when they get together. We don't talk about football or anything like that.” WritingKindTogetherLiteratureFictionFiguresFootballPlanetsConversationWineScience FictionSatHotelBottlesGet TogetherFiction WritersBalconiesBottles Of WineBlowing Up Author:Kevin J. Anderson
“There are lots of futurists that spend their whole life trying to figure out who we're going to be in 40, 50, 60, 100 years. That's the great thing about science fiction.” TryingYearsWholeFictionFiguresScience FictionWhole LifeGreat ThingsFuturist Author:Jodie Foster
“Speech recognition is utterly crap for writing fiction. If you try reading a novel aloud you'll soon figure out why - written prose style is utterly unlike the spoken word.” IfsWritingTryingReadingFictionNovelWrittenStyleFiguresSpeechRecognitionProseCrapWriting FictionSpoken Word Author:Charles Stross
“Do you think it interests me that this painting represents two figures? These two figures existed, they exist no more. The sight of them gave me an initial emotion, little by little their real presence grew indistinct they became a fiction for me, then they disappeared, or rather, were turned into problems of all kinds. For me they are no longer two figures but shapes and colours, don't misunderstand me, shapes and colours, though, that sum up the idea of the two figures and preserve the vibration of their existence.” ThinkingKindLittlesTwoIdeasRealProblemInterestEmotionExistenceFictionFiguresPaintingGrewShapesSightAll KindsPreservesColourInitialsVibrations Author:Pablo Picasso
“I always wanted to be a fiction writer, but I couldn't figure out how you could be a novelist and make any money, which continues to be a problem for novelists the world over.” WorldProblemWantedFictionFiguresNovelistsFiction Writers Author:Anna Quindlen
“I really need to know where I'm going with fiction to write it in a way that at least I'm happy with. And I really think that a lot of fiction books end badly because terrific writers said, "I'll just figure it out" and plunge in, but have created so many problems that they are kind of impossible to solve. I mean, I'm talking really good writers do this and you can tell when they got to the end they either had to do something preposterous or they just don't really resolve things. So for fiction I spend a lot more time outlining and for humor I really don't do much of it.” ThinkingKnowsWayNeedsWritingKindMeanSaidBookEndsProblemFictionTalkingImpossibleFiguresSolveResolveMore TimeTerrificPlungeGood WritersOutlining Author:Dave Barry
“I think our conception of literature should accommodate not only apolitical writers but also those whose political opinions we find unpalatable. Fiction after all comes from a different, less rationally manipulable side of the brain. I am personally very attached to reactionary figures like Dostoyevsky, Hamsun, and Céline.” ThinkingShouldDifferentPoliticalLiteratureSidesLinesBrainFictionOpinionFiguresConceptionAccommodateReactionariesDostoyevskyApoliticalPolitical Opinions Author:Pankaj Mishra
“There are some serious limitations in Mo Yan's situation as a writer in China today - just as there are for Jia Zhangke, one of the world's greatest film directors. He can only phrase his dissent obliquely, in his art. Writers in "free" societies labor under no such constraints. They can write more or less whatever they want in both their fiction and their commentary. Yet so many of them look oddly inhibited, even timid, and depressingly a couple of prominent figures actually positioned themselves to the right of their governments, intelligence agencies, and corporations.” WorldWantWritingLooksArtGovernmentTodayFilmFictionSituationFiguresSeriousCoupleDirectorsLaborChinaLimitationCorporationsPhrasesAgencyDissentConstraintsCommentaryFree SocietyProminentFilm DirectorsIntelligence Agencies Author:Pankaj Mishra