Teresa Nielsen Hayden Quotes

• Plot is a literary convention. Story is a force of nature.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Plot, Stories, Conventions

  "The Evil Overlord Devises a Plot" by Teresa Nielsen Hayden, nielsenhayden.com. June 22, 2002.

  7 Copy quote

• That's the great thing about doing good: Anyone can do it, any time, no waiting periods or batteries required.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Waiting, Batteries, Doing Good

  4 Copy quote

• So many problems are solved simply by knowing enough verbs.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Knowing, Verbs, Problem

  7 Copy quote

• Just because you’re on their side doesn’t mean they’re on your side.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Mean, Your Side, Sides

  4 Copy quote

• There's a rule for what makes good fantasy work, and it's as strange as any riddle ever posed in a fairy tale: In fantasy, you can do anything; and therefore, the one thing you must not do is 'just anything.' Why? Because in a story where anything can happen and anything can be true, nothing matters. You have no reason to care what happens. It's all arbitrary, and arbitrary isn't interesting.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Interesting, Arbitrary, Stories

  4 Copy quote

• I believe God put that itchy spot on our backs just exactly where we can't reach it in order to encourage us be nice to each other.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Nice, Believe, Order

  4 Copy quote

• The advent of the internet has made so many things possible. Self- published recreational journalism has always been around; but back when you had to at least learn to run a mimeograph, and you had to pay postage to distribute your deathless prose, people who didn't actually have much to say for themselves found other hobbies

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Running, Self, People

  5 Copy quote

• If you ask 20 different readers why they read, they will all be right.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Writing, Different, Reader

  4 Copy quote

• Writers say many true things about their own experiences with publicity and promotion.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Publicity, Bedtime, Promotion

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• Sometimes writers say true things about the overall nature of publicity, promotion, and the publishing industry; but alas, not always.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Publicity, Sometimes, Promotion

  4 Copy quote

• Didn't need the user icon to know you're white and male.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Icons, White, Males

  4 Copy quote

• If this power could be used for good, it wouldn't be this power.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Used, Ifs

  4 Copy quote

• If there is no willingness to use force to defend civil society, it's civil society that goes away, not force.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Use, Force, Civil Society

  4 Copy quote

• I have to go make books. Sorry about that.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Sorry, Book

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• Don't use metaphors in fantasy; your readers will take them literally. Or they may take them figuratively - but if so, they'll also take your magics and transformations figuratively. Either way, you're in trouble.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Writing, Magic, Use

  8 Copy quote

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