Jean Hanff Korelitz Quotes

Good fiction makes me turn off all the other parts of my brain, so that I become quiet and submissive, entirely at the mercy of the work at hand.

Once I opened a book, I felt compelled to finish it. I was drawn into a world, and I had to know what would happen, how it would end.

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

Stories have always been the things that entertain me and make me feel happy and sad and move me and give me the experience of being able to live many lives in one lifetime. It's the best thing about being alive.

I've always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults.

That's the mark of a great storyteller, never to give away secrets in advance.

One of my greatest pleasures is falling into a story someone else has written.

I love the novel because it's like a love affair. You can just fall into it and keep going, and you never know where it's going to take you.

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

I'm a fan of great storytelling.

To be completely honest, I just like whatever tells a good story. Put me in whatever setting, scenario, genre. If you're telling a good story, it's great and it's fun to get caught up in.

A story invites both writer and reader into a kind of superficial ease: we want to slide along, pleasingly entertained, lost in the fictional dream.

A great book provides escapism for me. The artistry and the creativity in a story are better than any drugs.

We are all like Scheherazade's husband, in that we want to know what happens next.

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

All I wanted to do was read, to be told stories. Stories were full of excitement and emotions and characters that entertained and often inspired.

Fiction, even when it's grim and hard, is fun.

I love fiction, you know? I find it fascinating. So when film really does go into fictional places, that's the most exciting for me. And when the fiction is about the person rather than about the place, that's even more exciting.

I know what it's like to be genuinely intrigued and compelled by a story and to have a sense that there's an adventure to be had and a film to be conjured.

The pleasure of reading a story and wondering what will come next for the hero is a pleasure that has lasted for centuries and, I think, will always be with us.

Literary novelists who have a strong handle on plot are often characterized as good vacation reads because they manage to transport you elsewhere, away from the petty facts of ordinary life.

Audiences are always open to an interesting story.

The more films and TV shows I spoil for myself, the more I am convinced that truly interesting stories can't be ruined - the plot thickens with the viewing like a rich sauce.

For me, one of the hallmarks of a really great book is that I'm seeing it in my head while I'm reading.

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