Compelling Quotes - Page 21

• I hate to think of a day where a compelling book or a compelling authorial voice would be lost simply because that person doesn't have a Web site. But I think that, to use the Internet in a positive way, to turn people on to reading, is something that authors shouldn't really shy away from necessarily.

  Marisha Pessl

  Hate, Reading, Book

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• A Mantra is composed of certain letters arranged in definite sequence of sounds, of which the letters are the representative signs. To produce the designed effect, Mantra must be intoned in the proper way, according to rhythm and sound...a Mantra is a potent compelling force, a word of power.

  Sir John Woodroffe

  Letters, Way, Sound

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• I think the tricky balance, the most important thing more than the horror is to have a compelling story, compelling drama, a show about great characters that you care about and you want to come back every week to see what they're up to.

  Oren Peli

  Drama, Character, Thinking

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• For me, few things are more compelling than watching a great opera.

  David Rubenstein

  Opera

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• Sometimes the characters I find the most compelling are in independent movies. With independent scripts people can take more challenges.

  Brittany Snow

  Character, Independent, People

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• Forty years after the greatest scandal of the American presidency, Elizabeth Drew's account in Washington Journal remains fresh and riveting, instructive and evocative. Her afterword on Nixon's post-Watergate life is equally compelling.

  Tom Brokaw

  Years, Scandal, Life Is

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• This intimacy is not necessary; no one is compelling me to open my inmost self and lay it naked, undefended, against that of another – merely for the joy of the communion.

  Sebastian Faulks

  Self, Joy, Naked

  Sebastian Faulks (2013). “A Possible Life”, p.145, Random House

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• History meets romance meets suspense! Compelling, original and wildly romantic, Beatriz Williams’ prose is stunning and the plot edge-of-your-seat gripping. OVERSEAS is an absolute triumph—I loved every page.

  Tilly Bagshawe

  Romance, Triumph, Plot

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• When you're a kid, you have no power. You're physically small and weak, and adults are constantly telling you what to do. So it's incredibly compelling to imagine yourself not only as someone to whom exciting things happen but as someone who is more than those around you. The problem is that then you begin to grow up and realize you're just a lowly muggle. … Is it possible that all of us, weaned on these stories, end up inevitably disappointed with mundane life as it actually exists?

  Paul Waldman

  Growing Up, Kids, Adults

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• Even now I try to make each page compelling for the readers to get absorbed in the book.

  Chetan Bhagat

  Book, Trying, Pages

  "Q&A: Chetan Bhagat on His New Book". Interview with Diksha Sahni, blogs.wsj.com. September 19, 2011.

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• I have always been drawn to coming-of-age stories and books and movies featuring compelling young characters.

  Emily Giffin

  Book, Character, Age

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• Even if man's hunger and thirst and his sexual strivings are completely satisfied, 'he' is not satisfied. In contrast to the animal his most compelling problems are not solved then, they only begin. He strives for power or for love, or for destruction, he risks his life for religious, for political, for humanistic ideals, and these strivings are what constitutes and characterizes the peculiarity of human life.

  Erich Fromm

  Religious, Animal, Men

  Erich Fromm (2013). “Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics”, p.46, Routledge

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• Shakespeare and Rembrandt have in common the faculty of quickening speculation and compelling the minds of men to combat and discussion.

  William Ernest Henley

  Men, Mind, Common

  William Ernest Henley (1921). “The Works of William Ernest Henley: Views and reviews”

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• The question to ask is whether the risk of traveling to space is worth the benefit. The answer is an unequivocal yes, but not only for the reasons that are usually touted by the space community: the need to explore, the scientific return, and the possibility of commercial profit. The most compelling reason, a very long-term one, is the necessity of using space to protect Earth and guarantee the survival of humanity.

  William E. Burrows

  Moon, Space, Compelling Reason

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• The more complex and overwhelming the threat to a protagonist, the better the opportunity for the author to create a compelling conflict and a dramatic resolution.

  Terry Brooks

  Writing, Opportunity, Conflict

  Terry Brooks (2003). “Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life”, p.102, Del Rey

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• I have a theory... that someplace at the heart of most compelling stories is something that doesn't make sense.

  Richard Ford

  Heart, Stories, Theory

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• I've come to feel that if I can't make something happen in under an hour and a half, it's not going to happen in a compelling way in a three-hour play.

  Sam Shepard

  Play, Three, Half

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• I always try to tell a good story, one with a compelling plot that will keep the pages turning. That is my first and primary goal. Sometimes I can tackle an issue-homelessness, tobacco litigation, insurance fraud, the death penalty-and wrap a good story around it.

  John Grisham

  Pages Turning, Issues, Goal

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• As a writer, my only responsibility is to tell a compelling story.

  Jay Asher

  Responsibility, Stories

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• I recurred on Grey’s Anatomy for three years, and at the same time, I recurred for eight episodes on Rescue Me. And I’d recurred for nine episodes on The Practice. Frankly, the guest star is often the most compelling character.

  Kate Burton

  Stars, Character, Years

  "Emmys 2012: Six Shows in One Season? Kate Burton, Daughter Of Sir Richard, Did It (Q&A)". Interview with Tim Appelo, www.hollywoodreporter.com. June 22, 2012.

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• I'm interested in painting the most beautifully compelling pictures and images and metaphors and stories and explanations possible that will put Jesus in language for a world that desperately needs to hear it.

  Rob Bell

  Jesus, Needs, Stories

  "The Heretical Rob Bell and Why Love Wins" by Cathleen Falsani, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 14, 2011.

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• If it doesn't come through the Internet, it's not really compelling to me.

  Pete Cashmore

  Internet, Ifs

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• You'll work hard to create characters that are compelling and unforgettable. But in the end, it's the story that matters.

  James Dashner

  Hard Work, Character, Stories

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• My first job is to write a book that I believe is compelling and deserves the long sustained attention that any novel requires, and to worry about the commerce only late in the game.

  Joshua Ferris

  Jobs, Book, Believe

  "Joshua Ferris Interview: Rock Star in the Book Store". Interview with Jason Pinter, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 10, 2010.

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• The compelling thing about making art — or making anything, I suppose — is the moment when the vaporous, insubstantial idea becomes a solid there, a thing, a substance in a world of substances. Circe, Nimbue, Artemis, Athena, all the old sorceresses: they must have known the feeling as they transformed mere men into fabulous creatures, stole the secrets of the magicians, disposed armies: ah, look, there it is, the new thing. Call it a swine, a war, a laurel tree. Call it art.

  Audrey Niffenegger

  Art, War, Army

  "The Time Traveler's Wife". Book by Audrey Niffenegger, 2003.

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