Quotes About Story

A person's identity is not to be found in behavior...but in the capacity to keep a particular narrative going

I fear dying in the middle of a book. It would be so annoying to write 80 000 words and not get to the end. I'm phobic about it. So when I'm writing a book I leave messages all over the house for people to know how the story ends, and then someone can finish it for me.

That's why life is so different to fiction. Every day is a single page and you have no chance to thumb forward and see what lies ahead.

that story you told him about losing your own children, and now I'm wondering if that was even true." "Of course it was true!" Mrs. Jones snapped, and just for once, she betrayed her emotions. She was angry. Two dark spots had appeared in her cheeks.

You write about me and I will make sure that all hell comes in your direction. I have my life. I have my experiences. And you have no right at all to appropriate my story, turn me into a cultural stereotype, simply to embellish your own view of the world.

my life has been a remarkable one. Maybe one day someone will write a book about me . . ." "I've never much cared for horror stories.

A simple story filmed with limited sets can often be more effective than a costly extravaganza. provided it had depth and allows the audience to identify with the character.

I always tell people that I am most proud of the fact that the Ushahidi story has provided an inspiration to other techies in Kenya and Africa as an example of the kind of talent the continent holds.

I am keenly aware of how many people the Six of Crows stories' brought into the Grishaverse, and to me, the story of the Crows, of Kaz and his crew, provides a very different kind of story and point of view, than Shadow and Bone' and Alina's story.

Having a story is what people connect with, but the story alone doesn't allow you to achieve greatness and results. It's the day-to-day consistency of providing value to your audience.

I heard somewhere that whenever you write a book, people will ask you One Question about it over and over. And while I'm no expert in these matters, this is proving to be true. My first book dealt with a not-that-pleasant degenerate type, and the One Question was, 'Is this an autobiographical story?'

I think that's what art is about: to provoke you. It helps me make sense of a senseless universe because I become the god of the story. I create it, and I see it in all its lineaments in my own way and can control it - in a world in which everything else is out of control.

'Not A Love Story' is inspired by true events, but it is not based on those events completely. When I first read about the Maria Susairaj case, I was fascinated with the psychological aspects, that two seemingly very ordinary people can go completely berserk.

You read a script, you try and think through what is the best, most wide-ranging way of telling the story: who stylistically, character-logically, psychologically fits inside the world of what you're trying to do. A lot of it, when you're casting, is trying to get yourself in the head of a director.

There was an ITV television production of the second novel I wrote, called 'Murder of Quality.' It was a little murder story set in a public school - I'd once taught at Eton, and I used that stuff.

You do get certain publications in the States where, if things don't go according to plan, they flip the story and it becomes very negative.

The story of my life publicly has been told through 'Alternative Press.' Former employees, people who have worked there - my friend Ryan Downey, who wrote for 'AP' for a long time - I've been able to have really great articles written about me and talk openly about things in my life.

Writing was a way to get away from my life as a programmer, so I wanted to write about other things, but of course nobody wanted to publish another story about a family, unless it was extraordinary. When I began writing about my life as a programmer, however, people were interested.

I couldn't have known 'Crank' was going to be published, let alone become a big hit. That book was very personal for me: I had to tell the story for myself.

Cinderella is older than she lets on. She's ancient. She's had work done. The Disney film was based on Charles Perreault's French story 'Cendrillon,' published in 1697.

At 18, my first short story was published - I was paid a penny a word by a science fiction magazine. I continued to write, and five years later I published my first novel, 'Sweetwater.'

A publisher saw one of my historical novels and thought I would write an admirable detective story, so she offered me a two-book contract, and I grabbed it.

Publishers were ever eager for authors to do their own publicity because nobody else was willing to do it for nothing. But then it became clear that if you want somebody to champion the story, there's nobody better than the person who made it all up.

When I left the Senate in 1979, there were several publishers who had approached me about writing an autobiography, and I knew that politicians write books for many reasons, but at that time, I just thought I wasn't ready and my story wasn't over, and I knew I had a new life ahead of me.