Plot Quotes - Page 6

• In the preface to his great History of Europe, H. A. L. Fisher wrote: "Men wiser than and more learned than I have discerned in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern. These harmonies are concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following upon another as wave follows upon wave ..." It seems to me that the same is true of the much older [geological stratigraphical] history of Europe.

  D. V. Ager

  Wisdom, Science, Men

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• Gritty and witty, The Chicago Way is done the classic Raymond Chandler Way. Harvey's taut plot, snappy prose, and memorable characters make this debut novel a real winner.

  Kathy Reichs

  Witty, Real, Memorable

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• This book has too much plot and not enough story.

  Samuel Goldwyn

  Funny, Stupid, Book

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• I'd love to be able to write crazy epic plots. I'm working on it.

  Jami Attenberg

  Crazy, Writing, Epic

  "'Morrissey's hair, bongs made of apples, MTV's 120 Minutes': Inside this month's hottest new books". Interview with Teddy Wayne, www.salon.com. May 20, 2015.

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• It is a little out of touch to presume that someone wants to follow your every observation and insight over the course of hundreds of pages without any sort of payoff. That's why writing isn't a one-way street. You have to give something back: an interesting plot, a surprise, a laugh, a moment of tenderness, a mystery for the reader to piece together.

  Christopher Bollen

  Writing, Giving, Laughing

  "'Morrissey's hair, bongs made of apples, MTV's 120 Minutes': Inside this month's hottest new books". Interview with Teddy Wayne, www.salon.com. May 20, 2015.

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• Oh! think what anxious moments pass between The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods, Oh! 'tis a dreadful interval of time, Filled up with horror all, and big with death!

  Joseph Addison

  Thinking, Filled Up, Lasts

  Joseph Addison (1854). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison”, p.179

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• The craft of writing is all the stuff that you can learn through school; go to workshops and read books. Learn characterization, plot and dialogue and pacing and word choice and point of view. Then there's also the art of it which is sort of the unknown, the inspiration, the stuff that is noncerebral.

  Garth Stein

  Art, Book, Inspiration

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• The character's attitude is more important than plot.

  Stephen J. Cannell

  Attitude, Writing, Character

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• Nor is there any law more just, than that he who has plotted death shall perish by his own plot.

  Ovid

  Law, Murder

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• My center does not come from my mind - it feels in me like a plot of warm moist well tilled earth with the sun shining hot on it... It seems I would rather feel starkly empty than let any thing be planted that cannot be tended to the fullest possibility of its growth.

  Georgia O'Keeffe

  Shining, Growth, Mind

  Roxana Robinson, Georgia O'Keeffe (1989). “Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life”, p.399, UPNE

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• I can tell you that as a writer and as a reader, I regard character as king. Or queen. No matter how riveting the action or interesting the plot twists, if I don't feel like I'm meeting someone who feels real, I'm not going to be compelled to read further.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Queens, Kings, Real

  "How to Win the 2012 Fiction Contest!" by Laura Rosenfeld, www.seventeen.com. September 01, 2011.

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• Motivation is the power behind plot.

  Elizabeth Moon

  Motivation, Behinds

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• In 'Law & Order,' your main job is to stay out of the way of the plot. On another show you'd receive your script and see stuff that seems challenging and feel excited that the writers thought highly enough of you to write it for you.

  Jeremy Sisto

  Jobs, Writing, Order

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• My advice to aspiring writers of fantasy trilogies or series is that each book needs two main plots. There's the 'big story', the over-arching grand plot of the entire series, and there is the complete-in-itself, one-book plot.

  Juliet Marillier

  Book, Two, Advice

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• I can't stop watching 'Pan Am.' When I was growing up, my father worked as an engineer in Turkey, and we always flew Pan Am. The stewardesses were so glamorous! When they gave me a set of those golden wings, I felt very grown-up. Not only is the show's plot full of mystery and infidelity, they get the period details just right.

  Gayle King

  Growing Up, Father, Turkeys

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• Some movies I see today have the most dramatic plot points but the actors are not playing them dramatically.

  Aaron Eckhart

  Actors, Today, Dramatic

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• I wrote 'Turn Your Radio On' in 1937, and it was published in 1938. At this time radio was relatively new to the rural people, especially gospel music programs. I had become alert to the necessity of creating song titles, themes, and plots, and frequently people would call me and say, 'Turn your radio on, Albert, they're singing one of your songs on such-and-such a station.' It finally dawned on me to use their quote, 'Turn your radio on,' as a theme for a religious originated song, and this was the beginning of 'Turn Your Radio On' as we know it.

  Albert E. Brumley

  Song, Religious, Creating

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• A film with an untidy plot cannot grip the audience and define their emotional response.

  Kim Jong Il

  Emotional, Film, Response

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• If a writer is true to his characters they will give him his plot. Observations must play second fiddle to integrity.

  Phyllis Bottome

  Integrity, Character, Play

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• I love the Shakespeare history plays, I love the struggle for the crown as a plot.

  Mark Gatiss

  Struggle, Play, Crowns

  "Mark Gatiss: off with his head!". Interview with Mark Lawson, www.theguardian.com. October 21, 2012.

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• Normally I start with a plot, and write a synopsis, and the ideas come from the construction.

  Jo Nesbo

  Writing, Ideas, Construction

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• THE STORIES WE TELL fearlessly explores the textures of the human heart, finding a path toward hope through a Savannah that is jagged with class issues, faith misused, and broken trust. Henry loses you in a landscape peopled with secret keepers, storytellers and liars, and proves that in the end, love is the only reliable compass. This is everything you expect from Patti Callahan Henry—lyrical writing, characters worth rooting for, a sure-footed belief in the power of goodness—plus a twisty plot that will keep the pages turning long into the night.

  Joshilyn Jackson

  Liars, Character, Writing

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• The greatest compliment a writer can be given is that a story and character hold a reader spellbound. Im caught up in the story writing and I miss a good deal of sleep thinking about it and working out the plot points.

  Iris Johansen

  Writing, Character, Sleep

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• An idea has no worth at all without believable characters to implement it; a plot without characters is like a tennis court without players. Daffy Duck is to a Buck Rogers story what John McEnroe was to tennis. Personality. That is the key, the drum, the fife. Forget the plot.

  Chuck Jones

  Character, Player, Keys

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• I used to be enamored of object-oriented programming. I'm now finding myself leaning toward believing that it is a plot designed to destroy joy.

  Eric Allman

  Believe, Joy, Finding Myself

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