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Suspense Quotes

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Suspense Quotes

“I read a lot of detective stories because they always deliver. They give you a beginning, a middle, and an end - a resolution. The modern novels I read don't always deliver because I'm looking essentially for a story. As in Shakespeare, "The play's the thing." In particular I read detective stories for pacing, plot and suspense.”

GivingEndsPlayStoriesNovelModernMiddleParticularSuspensePlotResolutionDetectivesPacingDetective StoriesModern Novel
Author:Robert Cormier
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“We always have the movies that are more toward real life, but they don't have that much drama or suspense, or we have the full of drama or suspense, but they're far away from real life. Always when I was watching a film, films with good drama, I was thinking, "I wish they were more close to real life." But when I was watching real life films I was thinking, "Well I wish it had more drama." I've tried, in the movies that I worked so far, to get these two things closer and closer to each other.”

ThinkingWellsTwoRealFilmWishDramaReal LifeSuspenseTwo ThingsFar AwayGood Drama
Author:Asghar Farhadi
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“Death - Death can be faced, dealt with, adjusted to, outlived. It's the not knowing that destroys interminably... This being suspended in suspense; waiting - weightless, How does one face the faceless, adjust to nothing? Waiting implies something to wait for. Is there? There is One. One who knows... I rest my soul on that.”

KnowsDoeSoulFacesWaitingKnowingMy SoulSuspenseNot KnowingSuspendedFaceless
Book:Footprints of a Pilgrim
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“There isn’t any particular relationship between the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.”

LoveBookEndsMomentsAgeBeautifulCausesMoralMiddleEffectsProduceParticularMessagesDepthChosenSuspenseOne TimeSurprisingMarvelousSlaughterhouse FiveBeginning Middle And EndSlaughterhouse 5Slaughter House 5Slaughter House Five
Book:SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE
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“Dantes passed through all the stages of torture natural to prisoners in suspense. He was sustained at first by that pride of conscious innocence which is the sequence to hope; then he began to doubt his own innocence, which justified in some measure the governor's belief in his mental alienation; and then, relaxing his sentiment of pride, he addressed his supplications, not to God, but to man. God is always the last resource. Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other means of deliverance.”

MenFirstsMeanLastsBeliefNaturalDoubtStagePrideOughtConsciousResourcesInnocenceSuspenseTortureSentimentsPrisonerGovernorsExhaustedJustifiedSequenceAlienationDeliveranceSupplication
Book:ALEXANDRE DUMAS Premium Collection – 27 Novels in One Volume: The Three Musketeers Series, The Marie Antoinette Novels, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Valois Trilogy and more (Illustrated): Historical Novels & Adventure Classics: Queen Margot, Taking the Bastille, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Sicilian Bandit, The Conspirators, The Hero of the People, The Queen’s Necklace…
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“How she might have felt had there been no Captain Wentworth in the case, was not worth enquiry; for there was a Captain Wentworth: and be the conclusion of the present suspense good or bad, her affection would be his forever. Their union, she believed, could not divide her more from other men, than their final separation.”

MenMightWould BeFeltCasesForeverUnionsFinalsAffectionSeparationConclusionSuspenseDividesCaptainsEnquiry
Book:Persuasion In Modern English
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“Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement. ... The conventional big-bosomed blonde is not mysterious. And what could be more obvious than the old black velvet and pearls type? The perfect ‘woman of mystery’ is one who is blonde, subtle and Nordic. ... Although I do not profess to be an authority on women, I fear that the perfect title [for a movie], like the perfect woman is difficult to find.”

BigsLeftDifficultBlackImaginationPerfectMysteryTypeAuthorityObviousMysteriousSuspenseTitlesExcitementSubtleConventionalPearlsBlondeVelvetPerfect WomanNordic
Author:Alfred Hitchcock
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“Yes, she's bleeding to death upstairs, but I thought I'd avoid telling you right away, because I like to draw the suspense out.”

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Book:Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments Series (5 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls
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“I think I am beginning to understand why grief feels like suspense. It comes from the frustration of so many impulses that had become habitual. Thought after thought feeling after feeling action after action had H. for their object. Now their target is gone. I keep on through habit fitting an harrow to the string then I remember and have to lay the bow down. So many roads lead through to H. I set out on one of them. But now there's an impassable frontier-post across it. So many roads once now so many culs de sac.”

ThinkingFeelsFeelingsActionRememberGriefGoneObjectsHabitLaysPostsSuspenseImpulseFrustrationStringsTargetBowsFrontiersFittingHabitual
Book:A Grief Observed
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“Neanderthal man listened to stories, if one may judge by the shape of his skull. The primitive audience was an audience of shock-heads, gaping around the camp-fire, fatigued with contending against the mammoth or wooly-rhinoceros, and only kept awake by suspense. What would happen next? The novelist droned on, and as soon as the audience guessed what happened next, they either fell asleep or killed him.”

IfsMenMayStoriesHappensNextAudienceFireHappenedJudgingShapesCriticsSuspenseNovelistsAwakeShockEditorsCampsPrimitiveSkullsContendingNeanderthalsRhinoceros
Author:E. M. Forster
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“Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.”

GivingShouldWritingStoriesLastsUnderstandingInformationReaderPagesShould HaveSuspenseCockroaches
Book:Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction
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“Plotting is like sex. Plotting is about desire and satisfaction, anticipation and release. You have to arouse your reader's desire to know what happens, to unravel the mystery, to see good triumph. You have to sustain it, keep it warm, feed it, just a little bit, not too much at a time, as your story goes on. That's called suspense. It can bring desire to a frenzy, in which case you are in a good position to bring off a wonderful climax.”

KnowsWritingLittlesStoriesHappensDesireSexBitsCasesToo MuchWonderfulMysteryPositionGoes OnReaderLittle BitSatisfactionWarmReleaseTriumphSuspenseAnticipationFiction WritingFiction WritersFrenzyReading And WritingClimax
Author:Colin Greenland
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