Plot Quotes - Page 14

• I plot my ascent daily.

  Conor McGregor

  Mma, Ascent

  Twitter post from Mar 25, 2014

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• The era of television in which I grew up was much simpler than now. Its conventions were quite transparent and fun to think about. Who could ever remember the plot of those shows?

  Joe Bradley

  Fun, Thinking, Television

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• In the theater, you're so much more in charge as an actor. For better or for worse, you know what the audience is seeing. But you can be acting your socks off on film, and then you see the movie, and the camera is on the other actor, or they've cut out the lines you thought were significant, or they've adjusted the plot. So much of it is out of your control.

  Susan Sarandon

  Cutting, Acting, Cameras

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Attention spans are changing. It's very noticeable. I am very aware that the kind of books I read in my childhood kids now won't be able to read. I was reading Kipling and PG Wodehouse and Shakespeare at the age of 11. The kind of description and detail I read I would not put in my books. I don't know how much you can fight that because you want children to read. So I pack in excitement and plot and illustrations and have a cliffhanger every chapter. Charles Dickens was doing cliffhangers way back when. But even with all the excitement you have to make children care about the characters.

  Cressida Cowell

  Children, Book, Reading

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• My sister and brother are both writers as well. We are constantly discussing story and plot lines. And I love to discuss story ideas with my husband.

  Ruta Sepetys

  Brother, Husband, Plot Lines

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• That’s the problem with fiction — or the charm, if you want. Even mediocre plots have a way of sinking their hooks into you, until you find yourself concerned for the fates of characters who aren’t even fully convincing.

  Charles McGrath

  Character, Fate, Finding Yourself

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• When a book is just a plot, you know, two men fight for the love of a woman in a wild frontier, I immediately ask, 'Why?'

  Nicolas Roeg

  Book, Fighting, Men

  "Q&A with Puffball director Nicolas Roeg". Interview with Jason Wood, www.theguardian.com. July 18, 2008.

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• Unlike most wars, which make rotten fiction in themselves - all plot and no characters, or made-up characters - Vietnam seems to be the perfect mix: the characters make the war, and the war unmakes the characters. The gods, fates, furies had a relatively small hand in it. The mess was man-made, a synthetic, by think tank out of briefing session.

  Wilfrid Sheed

  War, Character, Fate

  "The Good Word & Other Words" by Wilfrid Sheed, Penguin, (pp. 107-108), 1980.

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• As for 'story' I never yet did enjoy a novel or play in which someone didn't tell me afterward that there was something wrong with the story, so that's going to be no drawback as far as I'm concerned. "Good Lord, why am I so bored" "I know; it must be the plot developing harmoniously." So I often reply to myself, and there rises before me my special nightmare that of the writer as craftsman, natty and deft.

  E. M. Forster

  Play, Bored, Special

  Selected Letters (1983-1985): Letter 104, to Forrest Reid, June 19, 1912.

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• In economics, unlike fiction and the theater, there is no harm in a premature disclosure of the plot: it is to see the changes just mentioned and others as an interlocked whole.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Fiction, Economics, Theater

  John Kenneth Galbraith (2015). “The New Industrial State”, p.7, Princeton University Press

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• From plots and treasons Heaven preserve my years, But save me most from my petitioners. Unsatiate as the barren womb or grave; God cannot grant so much as they can crave.

  John Dryden

  Years, Heaven, Barren

  1681 Absalom and Achitophel, pt.1, l.985-8.

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• Fine wits destroy themselves with their own plots, in meddling with great affairs of state.

  John Selden

  Affair, States, Fine

  John Selden (1856). “The table-talk of John Selden, with a biogr. preface and notes by S.W. Singer”, p.167

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• A dream inspiring a story is different than placing a description of a dream in a story. When you describe a character's dream, it has to be sharper than reality in some way, and more meaningful. It has to somehow speak to plot, character, and all the rest. If you're writing something fantastical, it can be a really deadly choice because your story already has elements that can seem dreamlike.

  Jeff VanderMeer

  Meaningful, Dream, Character

  Source: www.buzzfeed.com

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• Even a dream as inspiration doesn't mean anything unless you then find that it's sparked an actual story with a plot.

  Jeff VanderMeer

  Dream, Inspiration, Mean

  Source: www.buzzfeed.com

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• Now, once again, we find ourselves facing rising gas prices, and the question is: This time, are we going to learn from the past? Are we finally going to get serious about energy conservation? Of course not! We have the brains of mealworms! So we need to get more oil somehow. As far as I can figure, there's only one practical way to do this. That's right: We need to clone more dinosaurs. We have the technology, as was shown in two blockbuster scientific movies, Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park Returns with Exactly the Same Plot. Once we have the dinosaurs, all we need is an asteroid.

  Dave Barry

  Past, Technology, Two

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• There's that old adage about how there's only seven plots in the world and Shakespeare's done them all before.

  Terri Windling

  Done, World, Seven

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• In comedy, the witty style wins out over every mishap of the plot.

  Mason Cooley

  Witty, Winning, Style

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• I'd like to work with some of the videogame companies for the simple fact that they obviously need some sort of writer's help. I play videogames, and lately it's hard for me to enjoy them because I'm spending all my time cringing at the corny dialogue, thin characters, and glaring plot holes.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Character, Simple, Play

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• Also, worldbuilding touches all aspects of your story. It touches plot and character as well. If you don't know the culture your character comes from, how can you know what he's really like? You must know your characters on a much deeper level than you would if you just shrugged your way into a cookie cutter fantasy world.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Character, Levels, Way

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• Sometimes I feel that the world is made up of sensible people who know the plot and bloody idiots who don't.

  Terry Pratchett

  People, World, Idiot

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• I get a lot of inspiration from Japanese manga, especially shoujo which tends to have elaborate and fantastical adventure plots.

  Cassandra Clare

  Inspiration, Adventure

  WriteWords Interview, www.writewords.org.uk. July 31, 2007.

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• I don't usually read my reviews. I've noticed older reviewers are much more bothered by the plot complications. Younger reviews don't seem to be bothered by the complications at all.

  Heidi Julavits

  Reviews, Complication, Bothered

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I want the plot to be as complicated as possible. Usually I'll write all the way through to an end, and then I go back and try to fix the ending so that it makes sense. I don't think out the plot ahead of time.

  Heidi Julavits

  Writing, Thinking, Trying

  "The Brilliant Complications of Heidi Julavits". Interview with Christopher Bollen, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 28, 2012.

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• I obviously read and adore traditional fiction. I teach traditional fiction, I also teach all kind of not-so-traditional fiction. And since I'm such a plot buff, and I'm really such a narrative buff, I can't seem to relinquish my - not just reliance - but excitement about those traditional techniques.

  Heidi Julavits

  Fiction, Narrative, Technique

  "The Brilliant Complications of Heidi Julavits". Interview with Christopher Bollen, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 28, 2012.

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• With non-fiction writing I feel like I'm confined and driven by what actually happened. That makes the "plot". So it's a process of getting all of my notes typed up, then scanning through the notes, trying to extract or find certain vignettes that seem like they might write well - that might have a potential for good energy, shape, etc. And then at some point I start stringing these together, keeping an eye on the word count.

  George Saunders

  Eye, Writing, Trying

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