Twyla Tharp Quotes

Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties.

I tend not to know what the plot is or the story is or even the theme. Those things come later, for me.

When you're writing a novel - at least the way I write is I work from what I would call 'emotional atmosphere,' ambiance to ambiance.

Once a novel gets going and I know it is viable, I don't then worry about plot or themes. These things will come in almost automatically because the characters are now pulling the story.

Writing sketches, you're also learning about a journey and characters, and you translate that to bigger things.

It's hard to write a good plot, it's very hard.

Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it is drawing from all the moments of your life.

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

You asked what is the secret of a really good sketch. And it is a sketch is a small play. It's got a beginning, and a middle and an end. It should have a plot; it should have the characters, conflict. It is a little play. And in it, will be funny stuff.

I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue.

When I work, I think mainly in terms of dramatic choices.

I've always found the script to be more of a skeleton, the template.

Sometimes, I have themes that interest me or that touch on larger issues but, really, I'm just trying to figure out the plot, or how the characters work. I'm trying to make the best story I possibly can.

If I ever wrote a script myself, it would be strongly emotional material.

I really believe that studying organization, even in the form of studying detective story organization, is very, very valuable for a playwright, a budding playwright.

Basically, fiction is people. You can't write fiction about ideas.

It's fun to improvise, but I still think it's better to have a great script, you know, like a Charlie Kaufman script.

That's the way it happens - some characters you set out to use, some are happy accidents. As long as it works, it doesn't really matter how you got them.

I'm big on story structure. I studied with John Truby, who mapped out story by means of moral wants and needs, and that's what I do. Hey, so does John Irving.

As a writer, I had learned a lot on 'Margin Call' about embracing the weaknesses of a narrative and of a project. A story always has an inherent narrative weakness.

Humanizing good people is kind of boring and I don't really see the value in it... humanizing tricky characters is exhilarating, and making audience films out of indie subjects excites me.

I'll often dream about characters before I start writing their stories.

Theme is great for people who like to approach stories that way, but it's an organizing principle that helps us write a story that has some weight; it's not something that all readers have to care about.

I think the main thing to remember when writing a novel is to stay true to the characters.

It's all about letting the story take over.