Best pages & stories Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 3

“Pretty much every issue that we've put out, there have been at least one or two things that really surprised me. It sounds like bullshit, but most of the stories that we've run had that effect on me. We get thousands and thousands of submissions and I don't think we've published a story yet - very few, anyway - where there wasn't something like what Mona Simpson described, where a first sentence or a first page didn't just really command attention.”

Thinking Firsts Has Beens Two Stories Running Sound Attention Issues Effects Pages Sentences Command Two Things Bullshit Submission

Author:Lorin Stein

“Not every story lends itself tonally to humor, so you have to navigate that territory properly. You can put a humorous spin on anything, really, if you know what you're doing, but it's not always desirable to have your reader laughing on every page.”

Ifs Knows Stories Laughing Reader Pages Humorous Territory Desirable Navigate

Author:Kevin Keck

“One easy mistake to make with the first novel is to expand the short story. Some things are better as a story; you cannot dilute things into a novel. I think the first hundred pages of a novel are very important. That's where you set things up: the world, the characters. Once you've set that up, it'll be much easier.”

Thinking World Firsts Important Character Stories Easy Mistake Novel Easier Pages Hundred Short Story

Author:Yiyun Li

“It depends on the story and the filmmaker. And it depends on the character, and the heart and soul of the person that I see on the page, and if it resonates with something that I think I can summon in myself.”

Ifs Thinking Heart Persons I Can Soul Character Stories Depends Pages Filmmaker Heart And Soul

Author:Dakota Johnson

“The only thing going on is the progression of words and sentences across page after page and so suddenly we see this immersive kind of very attentive thinking, whether you are paying attention to a story or to an argument, or whatever. And what we know about the brain is the brain adapts to these types of tools.”

Thinking Knows Kind Stories Attention Brain Type Pages Argument Tools Sentences Pay Attention Progression

Author:Nicholas G. Carr

“You have to design a story that might appear on the front page of the newspaper for the website. You don't have to design it in such a way that it can be self contained, that it makes sense if you never hit the front page of it.”

Ifs Way Self Stories Might Fronts Design Pages Newspapers Make Sense Website Self Contained

Author:Khoi Vinh

“I think you have to be ready to switch gears and go with the team as a director, as opposed to superimposing your own strict idea of the story. There are very few directors that can micromanage and still come out with something that's living and breathing on a page. Wes Anderson is one of those.”

Thinking Stills Ideas Stories Team Ready Directors Pages Breathing Strict Gears

Author:Susan Sarandon

“Now, I think of my writing as having two foundations: entertainment and meaning. The meaning portion is really me trying to answer my questions. The entertainment aspect of it is how I make a story that can make people turn the pages.”

People Thinking Writing Trying Two Stories Turns Answers Pages Aspect Foundation Entertainment Portions

Author:Karan Bajaj

“I've been doing morning pages: the first thing I do when I wake up is sit down and write three pages of whatever comes into my head. The more I do them, the more creative I get and the smaller my problems seem. I can turn something that I hated a few days ago into a short story or a song.”

Writing Firsts I Can Stories Problem Seems Song Turns Three Morning Creative Pages Wake Up Down And Hated Short Story

Author:T. Mills

“I also learned to tell a story. I think I learned from poetry how to time a story. Poetry's timing, beats and pauses. That white space on the page is as important as the black. The bottom of the page is blackout. It's performance.”

Thinking Important Stories Black Space White Pages Beats Performances Bottom Timing Pauses Blackouts White Space

Author:Sandra Cisneros

“There's a fantastic, thousand-page book by David Thomson about [David O. Selznick]. Again, it's not the best argument or the best advertisement for his story, because most people aren't going to read a thousand-page book. But I feel like the rise and fall and the work [Mayer] produced - not just the movies, but the memos, the volume of writing - he's just so passionate, and that's really exciting.”

People Feels Writing Book Stories Fall Thousand Pages Argument Exciting Passionate Fantastic Volume Advertisements Rise And Fall Memos Mayer

Author:Karina Longworth

“Story matters. Writing is important. Stories make the world go around. Many things begin as words on a page. It matters to the world. And it matters to you. Don't let anyone rob you of that. Don't rob yourself of it, either. Don't diminish. Don't dismiss. Embrace. Create. Accelerate.”

World Writing Important Matter Stories Pages Embrace Diminish Accelerate

Author:Chuck Wendig

“Every good story needs a complication. We learn this fiction-writing fundamental in courses and workshops, by reading a lot or, most painfully, through our own abandoned story drafts. After writing twenty pages about a harmonious family picnic, say, or a well-received rock concert, we discover that a story without a complication flounders, no matter how lovely the prose. A story needs a point of departure, a place from which the character can discover something, transform himself, realize a truth, reject a truth, right a wrong, make a mistake, come to terms.”

“The same sports sayings seem to be used over and over again. If you have your own favorite sport saying and would like to share it, or possibly a story you would like to add please continue to our contributor page.”

Ifs Stories Seems Used Sports Share Please Pages Add Contributors Favorite Sports

Author:Mary Lynn Rajskub

“We [me and Alison McGhee] probably wouldn't have said that when we were writing the stories, but it is so apparent to me in the finished product. For me, looking at Bink, it's like looking at myself on the page in a way that I've never experienced with any other book that I've written.”

Way Writing Said Book Stories Written Products Pages Finished

Author:Kate DiCamillo

“I also write the last paragraph or page of a story first. That way I always know what I'm working towards.”

Knows Way Writing Firsts Stories Lasts Pages Paragraph

Author:Truman Capote

“I was interested first of all in trying to capture this myth that was always changing and to create some sort of a master story, some version of the myth that resonated with me, since I could have taken more or less any detail that I wanted or the opposite and try to put that down on the page in a way that I could express from that outset for myself and for our readers what it was that was so magical about [Buckminster] Fuller's way of putting together the world.”

World Way Trying Firsts Stories Wanted Together Taken Masters Reader Pages Opposites Details Myth Versions Capture Buckminster Fuller

Author:Jonathon Keats

“Fabio Celon did send me pages as he progressed, both in black and white and some color samples as well. It was really exciting to see the sketches and to see the story [The Kite Runner] shaping up visually.”

Wells Stories Black White Color Pages Exciting Black And White Runners Sample Kites

Author:Khaled Hosseini

“I found myself sitting at the computer, and I thought I was going to write a kind of simple nostalgic story about two boys and their love of kite fighting. But stories have a will of their own, and this one turned out to be this dark tale about betrayal, loss, regret. The short story which was about 25 pages long sat around for a couple of years.”

Writing Years Kind Long Two Stories Fighting Found Dark Loss Simple Boys Regret Couple Computer Pages Sitting Betrayal Tales Sat Short Story Nostalgic Kites

Author:Khaled Hosseini

“I wrote the entire history of Alpha because the space station was around for 500 years. I have 30 pages on the history of Alpha. Every ten years what happens. They took control and what happened. Every 80 years, they have to change the communication system because it doesn't work anymore. Some aliens come with new technology, and suddenly you can change the electric system. We wrote the entire story [for Valerian]”

Years Stories Happens Space Technology Happened Communication Ten Pages Aliens Stations Electric New Technology Alphas

Author:Luc Besson

“The one difference between comics and, say, cinema or prose, is that you've only got so many pages, and publishers will work to a set page count. So you have to work out how many pages you actually have and how much to allow for each story.”

Stories Differences Pages Work Out Cinema Prose Publishers

Author:Leah Moore

“Comics have the page as their real estate so you've only got that space to tell the story on. But the other thing only comics do is to have the words and pictures being simultaneous. Your brain is flicking between them and you can put in some excellent narrative devices; you can off-set things and juxtapose things between word and image.”

Real Stories Space Brain Pages Narrative Excellent Devices Estates Simultaneous

Author:Leah Moore

“The story [of Allied ] itself is the story I wrote, and that's what's great about Bob [Zemeckis ]. You have meetings, but it's meetings for clarity, not to change what they're saying or doing. He takes what's on the page and executes it so brilliantly.”

Stories Pages Meetings Clarity Bob

Author:Steven Knight

“There have been times I thought that when I got a certain point in the story, a certain character was going to do a certain thing, only to get to that point and have the character make clear that he or she doesn't want to do that at all. That long phone conversation I thought the character was going to have? He hangs up the phone before the other person answers, and twenty pages of dialog I had half written in my head go out the window.”

Want Persons Long Has Beens Character Stories Certain Answers Half Clear Written Conversation Pages Window Twenties Phones Hang Ups

Author:Steve Erickson

“I hate it when people tell me the end of the story because my mother always read the last page of a novel first to see whether she wanted to read it. It was a strange reading habit.”

People Firsts Ends Stories Wanted Lasts Mother Hate Reading Novel Strange Habit Pages I Hate Reading Habits

Author:Alice Hoffman

“I do not often follow my characters off on tangents or change my story on a whim. I have an outline which I follow quite sternly...for a good long while. Then it turns out in some way to be insurmountably wrong and I am forced to re-think every component. Usually at this point I throw hundreds of pages away.”

Thinking Way Long Character Stories Turns Pages Components Outlines Whim Good Long

Author:Megan Chance

“I have known I wanted to be a writer since I was seven-years-old. Seriously. In the second grade I wrote a 21-page story and handed it in to my teacher. She told my mother I was going to be a writer. Since then, I always kept a journal and wrote poetry, plays, stories.”

Years Play Stories Wanted Mother Known Teacher Pages Seven Grades Journal Seven Years

Author:Renee Watson

“I remember on page one of The New York Times the article about Fred Leuchter. The heading was "Can Capital Punishment Be Humane" and it was the story about an electric chair repairman and execution machine designer. And then buried in the back of the paper was the fact that Fred Leuchter had also been involved in holocaust denial.”

“At the very core of what a comic is, time and space are kind of the same thing. When your reader moves her eyes across the page, she should be moving through time in your story.”

Should Kind Stories Eye Moving Space Reader Pages Core Comic Her Eyes Time And Space Rough Times

Author:Gene Luen Yang

“The thing that helps me do a good job is that I don't feel the need to explain everything about the world to my reader. I'm not writing a history text on the Four Corners. I'm telling a story that's set there. The setting belongs in the background for the most part, and it's easy for fantasy authors to forget that. That's one of the unfortunate parts of Tolkien's legacy, in my opinion. Read the first hundred pages of the Fellowship of the Ring and you start to get pissed, "Shut up about the Shire's museums! Isn't the world supposed to be in peril or something?"”

“If you want to draw people into the story, you really have to write as if you're writing a novel and make these actually-existing people, including the actually-existing person with my name, into a believable person on the page. And that requires distance. That requires not being right up against the events you're talking about.”

People Ifs Want Writing Persons Stories Names Talking Novel Events Pages Draws Distance Including Believable

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I don't consciously try to take my readers on a journey as I don't really think about my readers when I'm writing. I just try to write what I feel passionately about, to tell a story down onto the page.”

Thinking Feels Writing Trying Stories Journey Reader Pages

Author:Michael Morpurgo

“I like the brighter, shinier, happier comic-book material on a personal level, but I also think the best stories are told where you just don't know from page to page or moment to moment when the sucker-punches are coming.”

Thinking Knows Book Moments Stories Levels Materials Pages Comic Comic Book Brighter Sucker Sucker Punch

Author:Mark Waid

“Conversation on the page should reflect what the story is about. It doesn't have to be "realistic" in the sense that it's something you heard and plugged into a story.”

Should Stories Heard Conversation Pages Realistic

Author:Lynne Tillman

“When I was little, we had a Golden Book that had all these Disney characters in one portrait on the first page. My dad used to read from it every night. We'd play this game of find Pluto or find Donald Duck. He'd read us stories and do all the voices. Those are great memories.”

Firsts Littles Book Play Character Stories Used Night Father Games Voice Memories Dad Pages My Dad Golden Ducks Every Night Portraits Pluto Great Memories Donald Duck Disney Character

Author:Danica McKellar

“Movies such as 'Citizen Kane' and 'The Front Page' portrayed an era when driven newspapermen would do anything to get a story. The U.K.'s rough-and-tumble Fleet Street remains something of a throwback to that era, as demonstrated by the recent phone-hacking scandal - which led to the demise of yet another century-old paper, the 'News of the World.'”

World Stories Streets Century Fronts Citizens Paper News Pages Remains Phones Driven Eras Rough Scandal Demise Hacking Throwback Citizen Kane Fleet Street

Author:Nathan Myhrvold

“My short stories have always pushed twenty pages. That's no length for a short story to be. You either do them short like Carver or you stop trying.”

Trying Stories Pages Twenties Length Short Story Be You Stop Trying Carver

Author:Zadie Smith

“You become a different writer when you approach a short story. When things are not always having to represent other things, you find real human beings begin to cautiously appear on your pages.”

Humans Different Real Stories Human Beings Approach Pages Insightful Short Story Real Human

Book:Martha and Hanwell

Source: Martha and Hanwell

“I wrote my first book at eight, all of four pages. At 10, I did a 40-page story. At 12, I wrote two stage plays.”

Firsts Two Book Play Stories Four Stage Pages Eight Stage Play

Author:Caitlin Moran

“I would imagine that anyone picking up a book written by me would expect a fast-paced story that requires minimal effort to turn the pages. The reader would also be looking for some out-of-the-ordinary revelations along the way. At the end of the day, I'm a writer who simply loves revealing stuff that is out-of-the-ordinary.”

Way Book Ends Stories Turns Stuff Effort Imagine Written Reader Pages Ordinary Revelations The End Of The Day Imagine That Revealing Fast Paced Simply Love Minimal Effort

Author:Ashwin Sanghi

“There's stories and then there's stories. The ones with any worth change your life forever, perhaps only in a small way, but once you've heard them, they are forever a part of you. You nurture them and pass them on, and the giving only makes you feel better. The others are just words on a page.”

Way Giving Feels Stories Forever Heard Pages Feel Better Nurture Changing Your Life

Author:Charles de Lint

“Stories never really end...even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page.”

Ifs Inspirational Firsts Book Ends Stories Lasts Goes On Pages Insperational Cheer Up

Author:Cornelia Funke

“A story was a form of telepathy. By means of inking symbols onto a page, she was able to send thoughts and feelings from her mind to her reader's. It was a magical process, so commonplace that no one stopped to wonder at it.”

Mind Mean Stories Feelings Able Form Process Wonder Reader Pages Symbols Commonplace Thoughts And Feelings Telepathy

Book:Atonement

Source: Atonement

“I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page.”

Inspirational Book Stories Lasts Reading Solitude Pages Delicious Ache

Author:Naomi Shihab Nye

“In a story you only had to wish, you only had to write it down and you could have the world...It seemed so obvious now that it was too late: a story was a form of telepathy. By means of inking symbols onto a page, she was able to send thoughts and feelings from her mind to her reader's. It was a magical process, so commonplace that no one stopped to wonder at it. Reading a sentence and understanding it were the same thing; as with the crooking of a finger, nothing lay between them. There was no gap during which the symbols were unraveled.”

“When King Lear dies in act five, do you know what Shakespeare has written? He has written, 'He dies.' No more. No fanfare, no metaphor, no brilliant final words. The culmination of the most influential piece of dramatic literature is, 'He dies.' Now I am not asking you to be happy at my leaving but all I ask you to do is to turn the page and let the next story begin. -- Mr. Magorium”

Knows Stories Dies Turns Next Asks Literature Five Pieces Written Kings Pages Asking Finals Leaving Metaphor Brilliant Dramatic Do You Know Influential Lear Culmination Final Words Fanfare

Author:Suzanne Weyn

“Turn the page, continue reading, and let the next story begin.”

Stories Turns Reading Next Pages

Author:Suzanne Weyn

“I prefer a story that has the good sense to stay on the page where it belongs. - Elinor”

Stories Pages Good Sense Inkheart

Author:Cornelia Funke

“No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath... We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?" -Donald Miller,Through Painted Deserts”

Source: Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road

“We are all a volume on a shelf of a library, a story unto ourselves, never possibly described with one word or even very accurately with thousands. A person is never as quiet or unrestrained as they seem, or as bad or good, as vulnerable or as strong, as sweet or as fiesty; we are thickly layered, page upon lying page, behind simple covers. And love - it is not the book itself, but the binding. It can rip us apart or hold us together.”

Love Life Persons Book Stories Seems Age Together Lying Strong Simple Behinds Sweet Quiet Pages And Love Library Vulnerable Volume Shelves Rip One Word Binding

Author:Deb Caletti

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