Preston Sturges Quotes

When writing, I'm not thinking about war, even if I'm writing about it. I'm thinking about sentences, rhythm and story. So the focus, when I'm working, even if it's on a story that takes place at war, is not on bombs or bullets. It's on the story.

Whenever you can manoeuvre your characters into a situation where they both have a good argument to make, you're on the right track.

Where radio is different than fiction is that even mediocre fiction needs purpose, a driving question.

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

I think it's a short story writer's duty, as well as writing well about emotions and characters, to write story.

And dialogue, I'm good at it, and it's because it's the only thing you have to work with in TV writing.

It's not easy to tell a story about writers and make that feel like a complete story and an interesting story.

A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story.

It's a real challenge to complete a story arc and end up with a cool punchline in 120 characters.

As a writer, it is my job to tell a story. I don't want to get involved in social commentary; I just want to show issues from a different point of view. I want to show issues from a perspective that may not be highlighted.

For the professional writer, stories must be presented as a series of individual scenes, each one dramatized with dialogue and telling descriptions of who is present and what they're all doing.

A good opening and a good ending make for a good film provide they come close together.

I'm interested in character and dialogue and exchange of ideas.

Show me the story. I just want to tell a story that pulls me forward.

Half of a broadcast show, in my experience, is things happening, and the other half is people talking about how they feel about the things that happened. And so there's this sense of everyone saying their subtext out loud.

My story is very long. And for somebody to write a good story, one needs a good writer, too.

In theatre, you learn the story is more important than the actor.

I just respond to the stories I'm being asked to tell.

I enjoy stories that can spark a conversation.

I like stories, and I really like words. So I like stories that rely on dialogue.

Part of the fun of writing is having messages. Without them, it's all gunfights and car chases, and none of it means anything.

You spend so much time as a writer telling straight and linear stories.

When I began writing novels, I read Aristotle to learn how to perfect structure, Pearl Cleage to sustain tension, and Nora Roberts for characterization.

I think I'm good at metaphors and descriptions. Plot doesn't come naturally to me, so I work really hard at it.

I can't tell a story just by deciding to tell a story, do it in a didactic way. I need to have my own emotion, to feel, 'Wow, there is something I can discover, I can create.'