Plot Quotes - Page 7

• I begin by writing paragraphs that don’t have an immediate relation to a plot. The sound of the story comes first.

  Grace Paley

  Writing, Sound, Stories

  6 Copy quote

• Life has no plot. It is by far more interesting than anything you can say about it.

  Erica Jong

  Interesting

  FaceBook post by Erica Jong from Jan 19, 2014

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• No one would have known, from how he held my hand, [that] over the years of heartache he had hatched a plot to change my life forever. He held his grip and would not let me go. I do not know what joins the parts of an atom, but it seems what binds one human to another is pain.

  Andrew Sean Greer

  Pain, Hands, Years

  5 Copy quote

• My friend Ian Hagemann, a regular at Wiscon, once said on a panel that when he reads science fiction futures that are full of white people and no one else, he wonders when the race war happened that wiped out the majority of the human race, and why the writer hasn’t mentioned such an important plot point.

  Nalo Hopkinson

  War, Race, White

  9 Copy quote

• I confess that I cannot understand how we can plot, lie, cheat and commit murder abroad and remain humane, honorable, trustworthy and trusted at home.

  Archibald Cox

  Lying, Home, Murder

  24 Copy quote

• As regards plots I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Real, Helping, Regard

  1945 Orion, no.1,'A Conversation'.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have a catch-phrase to describe my plot-generation technique -- 'What's the worst possible thing I can do to these people?'

  Lois McMaster Bujold

  People, Technique, Generations

  Lois McMaster Bujold (2008). “The Vorkosigan Companion”, p.12, Baen Publishing Enterprises

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It’s so real." "Most dreams are. It isn't until you wake up that you see all the plot holes.

  Becca Fitzpatrick

  Dream, Real, Wake Up

  Becca Fitzpatrick (2013). “The Complete Hush, Hush Saga: includes Hush, Hush; Crescendo; Silence and Finale”, p.780, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I farm a little plot of things to say, with not much frontage on the busy road.

  Ted Kooser

  Littles, Busy, Farms

  11 Copy quote

• You can holler, protest, march, picket and demonstrate, but somebody must be able to sit in on the strategy conferences and plot a course. There must be strategies, the researchers, the professionals to carry out the program. That's our role.

  Whitney M. Young

  Roles, Able, March

  112 Copy quote

• I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals itself

  Alice Hoffman

  Book, Stories, Tone

  4 Copy quote

• Carney is like a graveyard where everyone already owns their plots and has built houses on top of them.

  Holly Black

  House, Graveyard, Built

  Holly Black (2010). “White Cat”, p.36, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A meal can be thought of as a ritual and a work of art, with limits laid down, desires aroused and fulfilled, enticements, variety, patterning and plot. As in a work of art, not only the overall form, but also the details matter intensely.

  Margaret Visser

  Art, Desire, Details

  Margaret Visser (2015). “The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities, and Meaning of Table Manners”, p.25, Open Road Media

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• According to the media, trans women were subject to pain and punch lines. Instead of proclaiming that I was not a plot device to be laughed at, I spent my younger years internalizing and fighting those stereotypes.

  Janet Mock

  Pain, Fighting, Years

  Janet Mock (2014). “Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More”, p.15, Simon and Schuster

  49 Copy quote

  Show source

• I love enemies, though not in the Christian way. They amuse me, excite my blood. Being always on one’s guard, catching every glance, the significance of every word, guessing at intentions, frustrating their plots, pretending to be tricked, and suddenly, with a shove, upturning the whole enormous and arduously built edifice of their cunning and schemes—that’s what I call life.

  Mikhail Lermontov

  Christian, Blood, Enemy

  36 Copy quote

• Your life will have chapters, complete with crazy characters, villains and a plot you can't even imagine as you sit here today. It's a lot like a Scooby Doo episode.

  Sharyn Alfonsi

  Inspirational, Graduation, Crazy

  4 Copy quote

• This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands,--This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, Wall, War

  'Richard II' (1595) act 2, sc. 1, l. 40

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• I keep losing and regaining my equilibrium, which is the basic plot of all popular fiction. And I myself am a work of fiction.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Fiction, Losing, Equilibrium

  4 Copy quote

• You can wipe your feet on me, twist my motives around all you like, you can dump millstones on my head and drown me in the river, but you can’t get me out of the story. I’m the plot, babe, and don’t ever forget it.

  Margaret Atwood

  Rivers, Feet, Twists

  Margaret Atwood (2011). “Good Bones and Simple Murders”, p.11, Nan A. Talese

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Story is honorable and trustworthy; plot is shifty, and best kept under house arrest.

  Stephen King

  House, Stories, Trustworthy

  Stephen King (2000). “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”, p.203, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• You'd think that would have been forgotten long ago. But no, no sooner has a little grass grown over it than some clumsy camel comes along and rakes it all up again." Caroline giggled. She was probably imagining Aunt Glenda as a camel. "This is not a TV series, Maddy," said Lady Arista sharply. "Thank goodness, no, it isn't," said Great-aunt Maddy. "If it were, I'd have lost track of the plot ages ago.

  Kerstin Gier

  Aunt, Thinking, Long Ago

  Kerstin Gier (2014). “The Ruby Red Trilogy”, p.225, Macmillan

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Do you ever get moods when life seems absolutely meaningless? It's like a badly-constructed story, with all sorts of characters moving in and out who have nothing to do with the plot. And when somebody comes along that you think really has something to do with the plot, he suddenly drops out. After a while you begin to wonder what the story is about, and you feel that it's about nothing—just a jumble.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Moving, Character, Thinking

  P. G. Wodehouse (2016). “Something New”, p.181, Lulu Press, Inc

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't really write plots. I use history as the engine that drives everything.

  Alan Furst

  Writing, Use, Engines

  6 Copy quote

• Once I start work on a project, I don’t stop and I don’t slow down unless I absolutely have to. If I don’t write every day, the characters begin to stale off in my mind – they begin to seem like characters instead of real people. The tale’s narrative cutting edge starts to rust and I begin to lose my hold on the story’s plot and pace. Worst of all, the excitement of spinning something new begins to fade. The work starts to feel like work, and for most writers that is the smooch of death.

  Stephen King

  Real, Writing, Character

  "22 lessons from Stephen King on how to be a great writer". www.businessinsider.com. August 11, 2015.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world. It makes you want to choose the characters, build the scenery, guide the plot. The person you love sits across from you, and you want to do everything in your power to make it possible, endlessly possible. And when it’s just the two of you, alone in a room, you can pretend that this is how it is, this is how it will be.

  David Levithan

  Writing, Character, Two

  David Levithan (2013). “Every Day”, p.108, Egmont UK

  4 Copy quote

  Show source