Lev Grossman Quotes

I always get excited when I find out there's a sequel, because all the work is kind of done.

There should be a sequel to 'Sarfarosh'. It was a different film.

When I began 'Wicked', I really thought of it entirely as a one-off, as the English say. There was no intention that there should ever be a follow up, because the subtitle was 'The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West'. She was dead and gone, as the book says, at the end.

I was keenly aware that everybody would have loved for me to do a close sequel or a spin-off to 'Marley and Me.'

The first is that instead of writing a sequel, which is what most people do, this is in fact a prequel. Although we didn't know that when we began the process.

When I'm working on one book, part of my imagination is thinking ahead to the next one.

I will never write a sequel to anything that I will ever write.

I had an erroneous idea that writing a duology would be simpler than writing a trilogy because I would get to cut out the middle book. It turns out it was actually harder because 'Wildcard' became this combination of having to write a book two and three at the same time.

Is it ever too late for a sequel?

I would normally never set out to write a trilogy.

Most people know me at Pixar as the guy that doesn't like to do sequels or very reluctant to do sequels.

I thought 'UnSouled' would come in at around 400 pages, but it took 650 pages, and even then I felt like I was rushing the conclusion, so I asked my editor and publisher if I could divide it again. So a sequel became a trilogy, and the trilogy became a tetralogy - although we're not calling it that.

I'm not promising to write 'JFK 2' - but one day, I might!

How a piece ends is very important to me. It's the last chance to leave an impression with the reader, the last shot at 'nailing' it. I love to write ending lines; usually, I know them first and write toward them, but if I knew how they came to me, I wouldn't tell.

I don't have any specific plans to return to the 'Age of the Five.' If I do, it won't be a sequel.

As for 'Independence Day,' we never intended to do any films in that series beyond the first one.

I am a big outliner. For my adult book, 'The Visibles,' I did not outline, and it took me two years to write because I just didn't outline, and I had no path.

I think the danger with using the term 'trilogy' is that it sets up particular expectations in the reader's mind.

If you make a trilogy, the whole point is to get to that third chapter, and the third chapter is what justifies what's come before.

I wrote The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God in five hours, but I had it all planned out. It isn't poetry and it does not pretend to be, but it does what it sets out to do.

'Habits & Contradictions' is the prequel to 'Setbacks.' I had all these titles already in my head before I even dropped 'em. Like 'Setbacks,' I knew that was gone be the first one; I knew 'Habits & Contradictions.' I knew 'Oxymoron.' I got two more albums that I already have the title to it, and I know how I'ma play the theme off of it.

You write, hoping to write a good book; that's it.

I know authors shouldn't play favorites with books, but 'Release Me' really is right up there for me. The characters truly came alive on the page and drove the story as much as I did from behind the scenes. It was a pleasure to write, and I'm so thrilled that it's the first of a trilogy because I get to spend more time with the characters.

I mean, frankly, I'm not speaking as a representative of Disney or Pixar, I'm speaking as just myself as a filmmaker: I don't go into anything that often thinking about a sequel.

Now 'Boondock II,' people are gonna see it because they liked the first one. There won't be very many people who go see it who aren't familiar with the first one.