“We who make stories know that we
tell lies for a living. But they are good lies that say true things, and we owe
it to our readers to build them as best we can. Because somewhere out there is
someone who needs that story. Someone who will grow up with a different
landscape, who without that story will be a different person. And who with that
story may have hope, or wisdom, or kindness, or comfort. And that is why we
write.” ~~ Neil Gaiman
“A good [short story] would take me
out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the
fit.” ~~ David Sedaris
“When all the details fit in
perfectly, something is probably wrong with the story.” ~~ Charles
Baxter
“The thing about a story is that
you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with
you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make
spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness.” ~~ Tim O’Brien
“The first draft is just you
telling yourself the story.” ~~ Terry Pratchett
“Bad writing is more than a matter
of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a
stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do― to face the
fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.” ~~ Stephen King
“Every word a woman writes changes
the story of the world, revises the official version.” ~~ Carolyn See
“A short story must have a single
mood and every sentence must build towards it.” ~~ Edgar Allan
Poe
“Borges said there are only four
stories to tell: a love story between two people, a love story between three
people, the struggle for power and the voyage. All of us writers rewrite these
same stories ad infinitum.” ~~ Paulo Coelho
“A story is not like a road to
follow … it's more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while,
wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the
room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by
being viewed from these windows. And you, the visitor, the reader, are altered
as well by being in this enclosed space, whether it is ample and easy or full
of crooked turns, or sparsely or opulently furnished. You can go back again and
again, and the house, the story, always contains more than you saw the last
time. It also has a sturdy sense of itself of being built out of its own
necessity, not just to shelter or beguile you.” ~~ Alice Munro
“The decision to kiss for the first
time is the most crucial in any love story. It changes the relationship of two
people much more strongly than even the final surrender; because this kiss
already has within it that surrender.” ~~ Emil Ludwig
“If a story is not about the
hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule—a great and interesting
story is about everyone or it will not last.” ~~ John
Steinbeck
“If a story is in you, it has to
come out.” ~~ William Faulkner
“A story is alive, as you and I
are. It is rounded by muscle and sinew. Rushed with blood. Layered with skin,
both rough and smooth. At its core lies soft marrow of hard, white bone. A
story beats with the heart of every person who has ever strained ears to
listen. On the breath of the storyteller, it soars. Until its images and deeds
become so real you can see them in the air, shimmering like oases on the
horizon line. A story can fly like a bee, so straight and swift you catch only
the hum of its passing. Or move so slowly it seems motionless, curled in upon
itself like a snake in the sun. It can vanish like smoke before the wind.
Linger like perfume in the nose. Change with every telling, yet always remain
the same.” ~~ Cameron Dokey
“A good story cannot be devised; it
has to be distilled.” ~~ Raymond Chandler
Hope you
enjoyed reading this collection of quotes.
Happy Reading!
