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Plot Quotes

Browse 1030 quotes about Plot.

Plot Quotes

“An action movie should, like any other, follow the narrative traditions of literature. That means there should be subtlety, a slow build and a gradual bringing together of all the separate threads of the plot. To see all of it coming together slowly is very rewarding for the audience.”

Should Mean Action Together Literature Audience Tradition Narrative Plot Thread Subtlety Action Movie Coming Together

Author:Shane Black

“God, I'd love to do a big commercial movie that made a lot of money and whose plot was interesting too.”

Made Bigs Interesting Plot Lots Of Money

Author:Bob Balaban

“I enjoyed doing the gag covers better than the story ones because they were usually simpler. A cover based on an incident in the plot took a great deal of staging to tell a little story that was still part of the book. And it had to make sense on its own.”

Littles Stills Book Stories Deals Enjoyed Make Sense Plot Incidents Gags Staging

Author:Carl Barks

“I look for material that both interest me and challenges me. If I am drawn to the material and I have to work hard at it, the characters and the plots reflect the hours and hours of research.”

Ifs Looks Hard Character Interest Hours Challenges Materials Hard Work Research Plot

Author:David Baldacci

“Crime fiction makes money. It may be harder for writers to get published, but crime is doing better than most of what we like to call CanLit. It's elementary, plot-driven, character-rich story-telling at its best.”

May Character Stories Fiction Rich Crime Harder Driven Making Money Plot Crime Fiction

Author:Linwood Barclay

“Every book has got its challenges. You run into a plot point that you can't figure out, or a scene that you struggle to write and have to write 50 times.”

Writing Book Running Challenges Struggle Figures Scene Plot

Author:Justin Cronin

“My temper manifests itself when I can't find something. I could swear that there is a plot against me to put kitchen utensils in the wrong drawers.”

I Can Kitchen Plot Temper Swear Drawers Utensils

Author:Tom Conti

“I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.”

Way Trying Character Stories Connections Plot

Author:Anita Desai

“My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about.”

Ifs World Book Character Care Reader Driven Useless Plot

Author:Jeffery Deaver

“So I work hard to present the human side of my characters while not neglecting the plot.”

Humans Hard Character Sides Hard Work Plot Neglect

Author:Jeffery Deaver

“I'm not a good crime writer. I'm not good with plots... so I have to do something else.”

Author:Karin Fossum

“It's very liberating for me to realize that I don't have to step up to the plate with a plot that involves the U.N. Security Council.”

Realizing Steps Security Plot Plates Council Liberating Step Up Security Council

Author:Jonathan Franzen

“I like to believe my suspense novels marry the strong characters from my romance writing past, with the twisty, clever plots of my mystery writing present.”

Writing Believe Character Past Romance Strong Novel Mystery Clever Suspense Plot Strong Character Suspense Novels

Author:Lisa Gardner

“What I loved about romances was the character, and I think I still bring that to my novels. What romance taught me was that the 'who' will always matter more than the 'what.' It's fun to come up with plots, but I want to make sure the reader cares about who it's happening to.”

Thinking Want Stills Matter Character Care Romance Fun Novel Taught Reader Happenings Come Up Plot

Author:Lisa Gardner

“I believe the most intricate plot won't matter much to readers if they don't care about the characters, especially in a series. So I try to focus hard on making each character, whether villain or hero, have an interesting flaw that readers can relate to.”

Ifs Trying Believe Matter Hard Character Care I Believe Interesting Focus Reader Hero Series Don't Care Relate Plot Flaws Villain Intricate

Author:Jeff Abbott

“A lot of cop shows, because they have the restraints of having a new case every episode, the victims often become these kind of nameless, faceless plot points, and as an audience we don't feel anything for those people.”

People Feels Kind Shows Cases Audience Victim Plot Cop Episodes Restraint Nameless Faceless

Author:Mireille Enos

“In commercial fiction especially, everything in the story usually contributes directly to the plot The shorter the story, the truer this is”

Writing Stories Fiction Plot

Author:Nancy Kress

“Fiction writers come up with some interesting metaphors when speaking of plot. Some say the plot is the highway and the characters are the automobiles. Others talk about stories that are "plot-driven," as if the plot were neither the highway nor the automobile, but the chauffeur. Others seem to have plot phobia and say they never plot. Still others turn up their noses at the very notion, as if there's something artificial, fraudulent, contrived.”

“Terrorist bombers on the left, fascist plots on the right.”

Politics Left Terrorist Plot Fascists Bombers

Author:Ray Davies

“They all laughed. I drew their pictures and they asked for copies and I handed them out as if they were my tickets to the show. In the Navy Yard, I could drink with men because I worked with men; in the Parkview, I could drink with men because I drew their pictures. The world was a grand confusion. Finally, when I was bleary, when my hand wouldn't do what I wanted it to do, I went home. I would lie alone in the dark, feeling that I was a character in a story that had lost its plot.”

Source: A Drinking Life: A Memoir

“I'm obviously very keen on the theater and I think it's inevitable that some of the orchestral and chamber pieces have got dramatic elements which might even suggest an unspecified dramatic plot of some kind or other, even though it's not in my mind at the time.”

Thinking Mind Kind Might Pieces Elements Theater Inevitable Dramatic Plot Chamber

Author:Peter Maxwell Davies

“I began to be impressed by what made a good book-how you needed to have a sensible story, a plot that developed, with a beginning, a middle, and an end that would tie everything together.”

Made Book Ends Stories Together Middle Needed Ties Plot Sensible Impressed Good Book

Author:Dorothy Fields

“We must clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of Westernizing and dividing China, and ideological and cultural fields are the focal areas of their long-term infiltration.”

Long Force Term Fields Areas International China Long Term Plot Hostile Strategic Ideological Dividing Infiltration

Author:Hu Jintao

“My key interest in choosing scripts is character-driven stories, because there are so many stories that sacrifice character for plot.”

Character Stories Interest Sacrifice Keys Scripts Driven Plot

Author:Lasse Hallstrom

“I always have one or two, sometimes more, Navajo or other tribes' cultural elements in mind when I start a plot. In Thief of Time, I wanted to make readers aware of Navajo attitude toward the dead, respect for burial sites.”

Mind Two Sometimes Wanted Attitude Reader Elements Plot Thieves Site Tribes Burial

Author:Tony Hillerman

“It's one of the most liberating things I experience in writing - letting yourself get rid of a gesture or character or plot point that always nagged, even if you couldn't admit to yourself that it did.”

Ifs Writing Character Plot Gestures Liberating

Author:Leslie Jamison

“Every so often you want to map out your plot mythology but never so specifically that you can’t let a story surprise you. You want to allow the type of action of the writer’s room so that you have the ability to take a left turn.”

Want Stories Action Turns Left Ability Rooms Type Surprise Mythology Plot Maps

Author:Eric Kripke

“I can't stop watching 'Pan Am.' When I was growing up, my father worked as an engineer in Turkey, and we always flew Pan Am. The stewardesses were so glamorous! When they gave me a set of those golden wings, I felt very grown-up. Not only is the show's plot full of mystery and infidelity, they get the period details just right.”

I Can Shows Father Felt Growing Up Growing Mystery Periods Wings Details Golden Plot Engineers Infidelity Turkeys Glamorous Flew Stewardess

Author:Gayle King

“The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then queen died of grief is a plot.”

Stories Literature Grief Kings Died Queens Plot

Book:Aspects Of the Novel

Source: Aspects Of the Novel

“I shy away from plot structure that depends on the characters behaving in ways that are going to eventually be explained by their childhood, or by some recent trauma or event. People are incredibly complicated. Who knows why they are the way they are?”

People Knows Way Character Childhood Events Depends Structure Complicated Trauma Shy Plot

Author:Rachel Kushner