Compelling Writing Quotes

If I had to put a name to it, I would wish that all my books were entertainments. I think the first thing you've got to do is grab the reader by the ear, and make him sit down and listen. Make him laugh, make him feel. We all want to be entertained at a very high level.

The subject for a lot of non-fiction is very emotional, but if you read it, it's the most boring, dry stuff. I wanted 'Torn Apart' to be extremely accessible and readable.

The greatest sin for a writer is to be boring.

If your book doesn't keep you up nights when you are writing it, it won't keep anyone up nights reading it.

When I first read the scenes I got to audition, I just could tell there was obviously something there. The writing speaks for itself, but also it's just the fact that 'The Handmaid's Tale' is such an amazing story. I had never read the book before I auditioned.

In the end, you write the book that grabs you by the throat and demands to be written.

The writers who accomplish most are those who compel thought on the highest and most profoundly interesting subjects.

I don't like to write boring books.

The main thing is to think strategically about what will engage your readers. Trust me when I tell you that few people are eager to read a story whose opening lines sound like a dissertation on giant bugs.

Young adults are honest readers. They won't stay with a book unless they have a reason, so it has to move along.

Back in 2004, Kellie Overbey handed me her play 'Girl Talk' to read. I fell in love with her brutally delicious humor and the fearlessly deft way in which she drew her characters. They jumped off the page and begged me to give them a space in which to stomp around.

When script is written well, then you start to make decisions of, "Well, do I want to be away from home for that long? Do I like the people involved?" When it's written well, a lot of those things go away and you can't not do it.

I'm open to reading almost anything - fiction, nonfiction - as long as I know from the first sentence or two that this is a voice I want to listen to for a good long while. It has much to do with imagery and language, a particular perspective, the assured knowledge of the particular universe the writer has created.

Possibly because I did start off as a journalist, my starting point has always been that you've got to keep an audience with you. Whatever you're doing, you always want a script to be a page-turner. It's very important never, ever, to feel above that.

You have to write a book because you believe it has helped you, because you believe it has helped others personally and you are dying to share with it others because you know it will add value to their lives. You write it for them like a gift. You don't want anything from them. You don't want them to do anything for you. You don't even care if they all share the book with their friends, they don't all have to buy them. You're just dying to share this idea with people. Your challenge is to write it in a way that is compelling, enjoyable to read so that they will get the idea.

I think each writer has to seek her most energetic prose style. She has to find a way to write so that nobody can deny it.

I am trying to give the best performance possible in 400 pages. I want readers to be scared; I want them to be moved. Entertainment doesn't necessarily mean something trivial, but it does mean people wanting to get to the end of a book.

I think it's up to writers to write stuff that is compelling enough that people want to watch.

I hope that readers will tear through my books because they can't stop themselves - and then, maybe, read them again and find new things there.

No one wants to see or read about a dull subject. I don't consider myself a dull subject.

Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader's mind - -vividly, forcefully.

Usually, when people get to the end of a chapter, they close the book and go to sleep. I deliberately write a book so when the reader gets to the end of the chapter, he or she must turn one more page.