Michael Ondaatje Quotes

I think people enjoy a series. When you like a story, many readers want more of the same, which is dandy, if the author and the characters have more to say.

I want to tell a story that makes the reader always want to see what will happen next.

I was doing 'Homeland' and read the first two episodes, and all I wanted was episode three to know what would happen next.

I love a good cliffhanger. I love when big events happen in shows. I love shows that aren't afraid to take risks and to really do what's best for the story line and realistic for the story line.

In episodic TV you have to keep things secret to keep the viewer in suspense.

I personally love a cliffhanger - I think it just extends the pleasure of viewing.

I honestly love nothing better than digging into a really good serialized show, whether it's 'Breaking Bad' or 'Game of Thrones' or 'Justified.'

Suspense is my thing. I think I am able to make people want to keep turning pages. They want to know what happens.

Plan for each episode to be a satisfying experience, but still leave the audience thinking, 'Oh, my God! Now what?'

I love serial drama.

The key to making good movies is to pay attention to the transition between scenes.

What keeps readers turning pages is suspense, which you can create using a variety of techniques, including tension, pacing and foreshadowing.

I know that when I'm watching a drama that I love, I'm disappointed when it's over at the end of an hour.

It's always very important to me to try to create a story that feels unpredictable. You can't jump ahead and see what's coming, but at the end, when you've watched the whole thing, it all feels inevitable.

Of course, I'm being rude. I'm spoiling the ending, not only of the entire book, but of this particular piece of it. I have given you two events in advance, because I don't have much interest in building mystery. Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It's the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me. There are many things to think of. There is much story.

One of the greatest sins in any story is false suspense. The kind of 'suspense' that disintegrates the moment you give your reader one second to think about it. And it's an easy trap to fall into, so watch carefully for it. If your story hinges on the question, 'Will Superman be pushed so far in his battle against Lex Luthor that he'll have to kill him?', or if your big cliffhanger moment is, 'Wow, is Spider-Man really dead this time?', then I understand Food Lion is hiring.

All stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending, and if they're any good, the ending is a beginning.

Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next.

Suspense is one of the ways you persuade a reader to become engaged and stay engaged with your work.

Narrative tension is primarily about withholding information.

The first thing we see about a short story is its mystery. And in the best short stories, we return at the last to see mystery again

A new chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play.

I got sent the script [ Before I Go To Sleep] as usually happens and you have a little look. I know it's a bit of a cliché, but it was absolutely a page turner. I mean, I wanted to find out what happened next.

For me, suspense doesn't have any value if it's not balanced by humor.

Spoilers are cowardly. They're just people who want to anesthetize themselves against the tension and the experience that the director and the artist have set up. If you go in there knowing what's going to happen, it's like reading the last page of the book. It's just cowardly.