“Mystery fiction is, after all, a substitute for tranquilizers, strong drink, and bad, if diverting, companions. One slips into bed ... onto the train ... into the chair in the sickroom ... and is suddenly transported to a place where light fights dark and wins. When the story's over, one is left without a hangover, without remorse. Can any other opiate make that claim?” IfsStoriesLightFightingWinningLeftStrongDarkFictionMysteryDrinkBedClaimsTrainChairsCompanionSubstitutesSlipsRemorseHangoverOpiatesStrong Drink Author:Mary Cantwell
“When I first encountered the poems of Jon Woodward, I was stunned into the state that is my life's joy-I was in the presence of the inimitable. Uncanny Valley extends that experience-almost into another dimension. These apocalyptic, pixilated poems forge a mythology of our ravaged culture, one that might have been written in the future. If you want poetry to give you a persimmon on a plate, look elsewhere; if you want to know what happens when seven trees fall on the highway and the story is told by a stutterer, this is the book, and it could only have been written by Woodward.” IfsKnowsWantGivingFirstsLooksHas BeensBookStatesStoriesMightHappensJoyFallCultureWrittenTreeSevenMythologyDimensionsValleysElsewherePlatesMight Have BeenHighwaysApocalypticStunnedUncanny Author:Mary Ruefle
“In horror stories or in fairy tales, the fascination with the morbid is also, at least for me, a way to prepare for the unthinkable… That’s why it’s very important for me to show the artificiality of it all, because the real horrors of the world are unmatchable, and they’re too profound. It’s much easier to absorb – to be entertained by it, but also to let it affect you psychologically – if it’s done in a fake, humorous, artificial way.” IfsWorldWayImportantRealDoneStoriesShowsEasierHorrorHumorousProfoundTalesFakeFairyArtificialFairy TaleFascinationUnthinkableMorbidHorror StoriesArtificiality Author:Cindy Sherman
“Every time I start off a book or a story I feel like I'm developing a new style or approach for that individual story alone, and it sometimes feels as if readers are looking for the same style/approach from the same writer over and over again, which hasn't helped me in the publishing biz.” IfsFeelsBookSometimesStoriesIndividualStyleReaderApproachDevelopingPublishing Author:Scott Bradfield
“And it is a very important thing to be and do, if not the most important 'cause how you interpret a story can then make the difference. So it is a very powerful thing to be. And when misused, it's very sad.” IfsImportantStoriesCausesDifferencesPowerfulWonderfulImportant ThingsJournalistVery PowerfulVery SadMisused Author:Angelina Jolie
“If you start parsing the cause-and-effect chain backward through time, eventually you land in cosmology - does the story begin with the Big Bang or the out-of-nothing creation of the world by the word of a Southern Baptist god? And that question is even more fraught than any of the others. The stakes couldn't be any higher, because not it's not just a question of life and death, but also a question of life after death or eternal torture after death.” IfsWorldDoeStoriesBigsCausesLandEffectsCreationHigherEternalChainsTortureLife And DeathSouthernStakesBangsAfter DeathCause And EffectBaptistsCosmologyRough TimesLife After DeathSouthern BaptistCreation Of The World Author:Kyle Minor
“I wouldn't know anything about opera music if it wasn't for Bugs Bunny. That was my entire introduction to opera music. I wouldn't know anything about classical music if it wasn't for "Fantasia." They didn't have to do that stuff. They chose to base this ridiculous, funny, intriguing, creative story on this beautiful classical music. It's the combination of the high and the low that I thought was very cool. But I had no concept of it as a kid.” IfsKnowsStoriesKidsBeautifulStuffCreativeLowsConceptsRidiculousCombinationOperaBugsIntroductionClassical MusicIntriguingBunniesVery CoolFantasia Author:Jon Hamm
“I don't have any one way to tell a story. I don't have any rule book of how it's supposed to be done. But I've always said that if a story would be more emotionally involving told, beginning, middle, and end, I'll tell it that way. I won't jigsaw it, just to show what a clever boy I am. I don't do anything in my script just to be clever.” IfsWaySaidBookEndsDoneStoriesShowsWould BeBoysMiddleScriptsCleverOne WaySupposed To BeInvolvingBeginning Middle And EndJigsaw Author:Quentin Tarantino
“It's all still about having a good story. You have to have a good story as your anchor, as your main focus. So for me, personally, I just like to concentrate on writing the best book I can, and if there's other stuff that goes along with it, that's awesome, as long as the story is central.” IfsWritingLongStillsI CanBookStoriesStuffFocusAnchorsGood Story Author:Rick Riordan
“The last element in drama is high stakes. War, of course, is life and death - survival, not only for the story's characters, but often for the society itself. That's why I'm drawn to stories that are built around wars, even if they're not technically "war stories."” IfsWarCharacterStoriesLastsCoursesDramaElementsSurvivalBuiltLife And DeathStakesWar Stories Author:Steven Pressfield
“In a sense my whole life as a writer is trying to find structural ways, or formal ways, to permit that outflowing so it doesn't just look like crazy output. In other words, if it turns out that you can do a given voice, that's just kind of inclination. But then if you can find a way to put that voice in a story so that the voice serves a purpose, then I would say that's being a writer.” IfsWayTryingLooksKindWholeStoriesPurposeTurnsGivenVoiceCan DoCrazyWhole LifePermitFormalInclinationOutput Author:George Saunders
“If I'm writing a story and you're reading it, or vice versa, you took time out of your day to pick up my book. I think the one thing that will kill that relationship is if you feel me condescending to you in the process.” IfsThinkingFeelsWritingBookStoriesReadingProcessOne ThingPicksVicesVice VersaCondescending Author:George Saunders
“The most hopeful thing in the stories, I hope, is wit. I make it up. If I make up a world in which we're ruled by big talking turds, it doesn't mean that we are. So you shouldn't feel depressed.” IfsWorldFeelsMeanStoriesBigsTalkingWitHopefulTurds Author:George Saunders
“I'm not thinking much about overall themes or preoccupations or anything like that. Instead I'm just trusting that, if I'm working hard, various notions and riffs and motifs and so on are very naturally suffusing the stories and the resulting book.” IfsThinkingBookHardStoriesNotionVariousThemePreoccupationMotifs Author:George Saunders
“I like the idea all memory is fiction, that we have queued a couple of things in the back of our minds and when we call forth those memories, we are essentially filling in the blanks. We're basically telling ourselves a story, but that story changes based on how old we are, and what mood we're in, and if we've seen photographs recently. We trust other people to tell us the story of our lives before we can remember it, and usually that's our parents and usually it works, but obviously not always. And everybody's interpretation is going to be different.” PeopleIfsMindIdeasDifferentStoriesRememberParentMemoriesFictionOur LivesCouplePhotographMoodInterpretationFillingTrust OthersFilling In Author:Steven Tyler
“I love the gothic literature. It always has such great stories with characters bigger than life and the stakes are always high. And because there's always a wolf at the door, the emotions are high; the romance, the sexuality, friendships, and relationships. You don't know if the guy kissing you one minute is going to bite you the next. This heightens all of the sensibilities and emotions, and therefore, it sings to me. And that's where the music comes from.” IfsKnowsCharacterStoriesRomanceGuyNextLiteratureEmotionDoorsMinutesKissingBiggerSexualityBitesStakesSensibilityGothicOne MinuteKissing YouBigger Than LifeFriendships And Relationships Author:Frank Wildhorn