“I'm used to adapting my novels for feature film - it can be challenging to cut and compress three or four hundred pages into two hours of dramatic action.” TwoActionFilmUsedThreeHoursChallengesNovelFourCuttingPagesHundredFeaturesDramaticAdapting Author:Tom Perrotta
“I think you will agree that I am alive in every part of this book; turn back twenty, thirty, one hundred pages - I am back there. That is why I hate the story; characters are not snakes that they must shed their skins on every page - there can only be one action: what a man is. When you have understood this, you will be through with novels.” ThinkingMenWritingBookCharacterStoriesActionHateTurnsNovelAlivePagesUnderstoodHundredSkinsI HateTwentiesAgreeThirtyShedSnakesI Am Alive Author:Kenneth Patchen
“A magical blending of mystery, romance, and deep and dangerous secrets. Kelly Parra’s Invisible Touch is an action-packed coming-of-age novel, sure to keep readers turning pages and begging for a sequel.” AgeActionRomanceSecretNovelMysteryDangerousReaderPagesInvisibleComing Of AgeBeggingSequels Author:Laurie Faria Stolarz
“Screenwriting involves an often un-personal process. Co-writers, directors, producers, everyone has a say in what you put on a page, and stories are constantly changing according to budget, actors, and commercial needs. Films are a collaborative process and are also inherently narrative and structured, so you are always working within very tight parameters. Short fiction unleashes a more intimate voice and a passion for language. I believe short narratives can have the same amount of danger and drama as any action film.” NeedsBelieveStoriesActionFilmPassionActorsLanguageI BelieveProcessVoiceFictionDangerAmountDramaDirectorsPagesProducersNarrativeBudgetsIntimateScreenwritingParametersAction FilmsAlways Working Author:Chiara Barzini
“In 'Tintin,' it's like a live-action role. You're living and breathing and making decisions for that character from page 1 to page 120, the whole emotional arc. In an animated movie, it's a committee decision. There are 50 people creating that character. You're responsible for a small part.” PeopleWholeCharacterActionDecisionRolesEmotionalCreatingPagesResponsibleBreathingCommitteesAnimatedArcsSmall PartsMaking DecisionsAnimated Movies Author:Andy Serkis
“A book is maybe about 350 pages, and the prose allows for readers to get a glimpse into the internal lives of the characters. A screenplay is 120 pages, and it's all dialogue and action. The pacing of films is different, the structure is often different, and the internal lives of the characters must come across through the acting. Movies are just a different experience than reading - so it just depends on what an individual prefers.” BookDifferentCharacterActionFilmReadingIndividualActingDependsReaderPagesStructureDialogueProseInternalsGlimpseScreenplaysPacingDifferent Experiences Author:Nicholas Sparks
“By speech first, but far more by writing, man has been able to put something of himself beyond death. In tradition and in books an integral part of the individual persists, for it can influence the minds and actions of other people in different places and at different times: a row of black marks on a page can move a man to tears, though the bones of him that wrote it are long ago crumbled to dust.” PeopleMenWritingMindFirstsLongHas BeensBookDifferentAbleActionMovingIndividualBlackInfluenceTearsSpeechPagesTraditionMarkIndividualityBonesDustLong AgoPersistDifferent PlaceDifferent Times Author:Julian Huxley
“But I'm not a small-literary-novel kind of guy, and once I'd developed the world in the first couple of hundred pages, I felt that there was potential here to go on and write an engaging story set in that world. So that's what I did. This probably ruins things both for the people who want small literary novels and for those who want action-packed epics, but anyway, it's what I wrote.” PeopleWorldWantWritingFirstsKindStoriesActionGuyFeltNovelGoes OnCouplePagesHundredRuinsEpicEngaging Author:Neal Stephenson
“As a writer, you paint strokes and leave suggestions so readers can create their own pictures. That allows you to know someone by a small action and it saves countless pages of explanation.” KnowsActionReaderPagesPaintExplanationStrokesSuggestionsSmall Actions Author:Mary Higgins Clark
“For those of us at Marvel Television, it always begins with the story. It's all about the script. It's making sure it's there, on the page. So, we needed to go to a group of individuals who have not only created some of the most memorable animated characters, like Ben 10 and Generator Rex, but also had done two seasons of our very successful Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man series, and that's the Man of Action guys. But, it wasn't just that.” MenTwoDoneCharacterStoriesActionGuyIndividualSuccessfulGroupsTelevisionHe ManNeededPagesUltimateSeasonsSeriesScriptsMemorableSpidersAnimatedSpider ManGeneratorMost Memorable Author:Jeph Loeb
“Values can't just be words on a page. To be effective, they must shape action.” ActionValuesShapesPages Author:Jeffrey R. Immelt
“A lot of people think that they are really cool because they don't outline. In my writing group, they would say, "I will never outline. I let the characters take me." C'mon, man - I outline the story, but it's only like one page. It's a list of possible reversals in the story, like things where everything will just change because of this certain reveal or this certain action. Then I start really digging into the character because, to me, I don't care what the story is.” PeopleThinkingMenWritingCharacterStoriesCareActionCertainGroupsPagesDon't CareListsI Don't CareTake MeReally CoolDiggingOutlinesReversal Author:Matt de la Pena
“Since most of the action of the war actually happens off the page (offstage), I wanted to give the characters something they had to contend with on a daily basis, some sort of obstacle. Weather seemed to be the one great equalizer regardless of your station in life - when it snows, everyone is inconvenienced to a certain degree. Plus it's tactile, weather, it affects the skin.” GivingWarCharacterHappensActionWantedCertainDegreesPagesSkinsBasesObstaclesSnowWeatherStationsPlusEqualizerTactile Author:Said Sayrafiezadeh
“There's a certain pressure you put on yourself to use the comics page to full advantage that can focus your mind to a pinpoint, and when the juices are flowing, that's incredibly exciting. When you've managed to fit a complex set of actions or a complicated emotional passage into a single page there's the sense of satisfaction that I suspect a sculptor gets from chipping away at a piece of stone and ending up with a fully-realized work of art.” MindArtUseActionCertainFocusPiecesEmotionalFitPagesAdvantageStonesExcitingPressureComplexesSatisfactionComplicatedSuspectsWorks Of ArtPassagesJuiceSculptorsChipping Away Author:James Vance
“I got caught cheating a bunch of times, well now I'm not drinking but you think just because I say, "Oh I'm not cheating on you" that that's good enough? No! It's about action and I think it's the same way with God. It's about action, it's about the way you live your life and how you carry yourself and that's what God sees. I think people should take a page out of that book when they make their decisions and do things... and I think that the world would be a better place.” PeopleThinkingWorldWayShouldWellsBookEnoughWould BeActionDecisionPagesDrinkingCaughtBunchCheatingGood EnoughLive Your LifeBetter Place Author:Ryan Montgomery
“That's the type of thing you need to keep in mind when drawing comics. The storytelling. Consider the action and the space available to you, that's what will make it a great comics page. Once you've figured that out, you can always find/make the reference to support your storytelling decisions. So by all means, study film, but as with any reference, the results are better when they inform the craft and not dictate it.” NeedsMindMeanActionFilmSpaceDecisionResultsSupportStudyTypePagesAvailableDrawingStorytellingCraftsComic Book Author:Declan Shalvey
“Even on the iPad or the Kindle, when reading a book, you're rewarded for pressing a button - it's almost as if it were a Pavlovian thing. There's a little action that happens. And that there's always a little pump of adrenaline that happens. But that pump is different when you're lifting a page as if it was a curtain in a theater to show you another thing.” IfsLittlesBookDifferentShowsHappensActionReadingPagesTheaterButtonsCurtainsLiftingAdrenalinePumpsKindlesIpads Author:Art Spiegelman
“October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter or of shutting a book, did not end a tale. Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: "It is simply a matter," he explained to April, "of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content.” BookEndsMatterLightActionCoursesReadingDifficultFindingsPagesGardenTalesGoldenGrassChaptersAprilHappy EndingsSunnyOctober Author:Neil Gaiman
“There is something wonderful about a book. We can pick it up. We can heft it. We can read it. We can set it down. We can think of what we have read. It does something for us. We can share great minds, great actions, and great undertakings in the pages of a book.” ThinkingMindDoeBookActionWonderfulSharePagesPicksUndertakingsGreat Minds Author:Gordon B. Hinckley