Short Story Quotes - Page 22

• You can't write a novel all at once, any more than you can swallow a whale in one gulp. You do have to break it up into smaller chunks. But those smaller chunks aren't good old familiar short stories. Novels aren't built out of short stories. They are built out of scenes.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Whales, Stories

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• I write short stories when a little idea occurs to me, that I know isn't a part of a novel that will stand by itself and should be concentrated.

  Roddy Doyle

  Writing, Ideas, Stories

  "Commitments" Author Pens Short Goodbyes To Youth". Interview with Scott Simon, www.npr.org. May 21, 2011.

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• I would really hope this would make people see the short story as an important art, not just something you played around with until you got a novel.

  Alice Munro

  Art, People, Important

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• I want the reader to feel something is astonishing. Not the 'what happens,' but the way everything happens. These long short story fictions do that best, for me.

  Alice Munro

  Everything Happens For A Reason, Long, Fiction

  "A Conversation with Alice Munro". Interview, knopfdoubleday.com.

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• Short stories demand a certain awareness of one's own intentions, a certain narrowing of the focus.

  Joan Didion

  Writing, Focus, Stories

  FaceBook post by Joan Didion from Feb 22, 2014

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• Sail the main course in a simple sturdy craft. Keep her well stocked with short stories and long laughs. Go fast enough to get there but slow enough to see. Moderation seems to be the key.

  Jimmy Buffett

  Simple, Keys, Long

  Song: Barometer Soup, Album: Barometer Soup, 1995

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• If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden.

  Haruki Murakami

  Writing, Garden, Stories

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