--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Short stories are wonderful and extremely…" description: "\"Short stories are wonderful and extremely challenging, and the joy of them, because it only takes me three or four months to write, I can take more ris..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/590/anthony-doerr-886_four_short-stories-are-wonderful-and-extremel_1748596.png" --- # Short stories are wonderful and extremely challenging, and… ![“Short stories are wonderful and extremely challenging, and the joy of them, because it only takes me three or four months to write, I can take more risks with them. It's just less of your life invested.” quote by Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/590/anthony-doerr-886_four_short-stories-are-wonderful-and-extremel_1748596.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/590/anthony-doerr-886_four_short-stories-are-wonderful-and-extremel_1748596.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/590/anthony-doerr-886_four_short-stories-are-wonderful-and-extremel_1748596.png) > “Short stories are wonderful and extremely challenging, and the joy of them, because it only takes me three or four months to write, I can take more risks with them. It's just less of your life invested.” [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Short stories allow rapid creation, enabling writers to experiment and take risks with less time investment than longer works. **In simple terms:** Short stories = fast, risky writing. Key Takeaway Write quickly, experiment boldly. Themes creativity risk efficiency Mood inspirational practical Type creative educational When to use this quote - writing workshops - personal projects - skill development - publishing - literary contests Key Concepts short‑form narrative creative experimentation time management Questions to Reflect On - How do you balance risk and depth? - What stories benefit from brevity? A Different Perspective Limited depth compared to novels. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Four](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/four/) [I can](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/i-can/) [Joy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/joy/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Months](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/months/) [Months Write](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/months-write-1528839/) [Short](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/short/) [Short stories](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/short-stories/) [Stories](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stories/) [Three](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/three/) [Wonderful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wonderful/) [Write](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/write/) [Write Risks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/write-risks-1585304/) [Writer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writer/) ## Related quotes > [Usually it takes me about nine to 12 months to write a book.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-spinelli/usually-it-takes-me-about-nine-to-12-months-to-write-a-book/) [Jerry Spinelli](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerry-spinelli/) > [The habits of a lifetime when everything else had to come before writing are not easily broken, even when circumstances now often make it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tillie-olsen/the-habits-of-a-lifetime-when-everything-else-had-to-come-before/) [Tillie Olsen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tillie-olsen/) > [“You‘ve got your whole life to write your first book and six months to write the second one.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-lawrence-belford/you-ve-got-your-whole-life-to-write-your-first-book-and-six-months-to/) [Richard Lawrence Belford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-lawrence-belford/) > [If you have five weeks to write an episode of television or seven months to write a movie or several years to write a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-o-donnell/if-you-have-five-weeks-to-write-an-episode-of-television-or-seven/) [Lawrence O'Donnell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-o-donnell/) > [I set goals for myself every three months. I write them down.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/payal-kadakia/i-set-goals-for-myself-every-three-months-i-write-them-down/) [Payal Kadakia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/payal-kadakia/) > [It took me nine months to write 60 pages. It was very frustrating](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-paretsky/it-took-me-nine-months-to-write-60-pages-it-was-very-frustrating/) [Sara Paretsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-paretsky/) > [It took us nine months to write 'The East'; we didn't start writing it on the computer until seven and a half months into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zal-batmanglij/it-took-us-nine-months-to-write-the-east-we-didn-t-start-writing-it/) [Zal Batmanglij](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zal-batmanglij/) > [I love writing, and I am never as happy as when I have a week, a month - three months - with nothing to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bernhard-schlink/i-love-writing-and-i-am-never-as-happy-as-when-i-have-a-week-a-month/) [Bernhard Schlink](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bernhard-schlink/) > [Books are like your children. 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When I was two days old, I started to write. By the time…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jon-scieszka/when-i-was-one-day-old-i-learned-how-to-read-when-i-was-two-days-old/) [Jon Scieszka](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jon-scieszka/) > [I'm sure I've been influenced by every fine writer I've ever read, from Dickens and Austen to Auden and Jane Hirshfield. And also, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amy-bloom/i-m-sure-i-ve-been-influenced-by-every-fine-writer-i-ve-ever-read/) [Amy Bloom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amy-bloom/) ## More by Anthony Doerr > [I was a nerdy kid.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/i-was-a-nerdy-kid/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“he moved neither forward nor backward in time, but merely endured variations of the same day over and over. Maybe he was the one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/he-moved-neither-forward-nor-backward-in-time-but-merely-endured/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“Open your eyes, the Frenchman on the radio used to say, and see what you can with them before they close forever.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/open-your-eyes-the-frenchman-on-the-radio-used-to-say-and-see-what/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“Just when we think we have a system, ...the system collapses. Just when we know our way around, we get lost. Just when we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/just-when-we-think-we-have-a-system-the-system-collapses-just-when-we/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“An hour passed and another and then, like a glass of water overfilled - the meniscus inverting, going convex, gravity pulling at the edges,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/an-hour-passed-and-another-and-then-like-a-glass-of-water-overfilled/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“For dinner, he orders wild boar cooked with fresh mushrooms. And a full bottle of Bordeaux. Especially during wartime, such things remain important. 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But the thing is, you don't even…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/you-ever-hope-for-something-so-much-so-much-you-can-t-sleep-so-much/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“Hope was a sunrise, a friend in the alley, a whisper in an empty corridor.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/hope-was-a-sunrise-a-friend-in-the-alley-a-whisper-in-an-empty/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [Time is a slippery thing: lose hold of it once, and its string might sail out of your hands forever.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/time-is-a-slippery-thing-lose-hold-of-it-once-and-its-string-might/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“...the air a library and the record of every life lived, every sentence spoken, every word transmitted still reverberating within it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/the-air-a-library-and-the-record-of-every-life-lived-every-sentence/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“silent desperation of everything they never said - gaps and absences in every conversation, the past circumscribing the present, the future hemming in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/silent-desperation-of-everything-they-never-said-gaps-and-absences-in/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“She is in charge of everything, but no one knows. It is a tremendous burden, she says, to be responsible for every little thing,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/she-is-in-charge-of-everything-but-no-one-knows-it-is-a-tremendous/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [I guess you could say I've been writing all my life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/i-guess-you-could-say-i-ve-been-writing-all-my-life/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [Only Numbers. Pure math. You have to accustom yourself to thinking that way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/only-numbers-pure-math-you-have-to-accustom-yourself-to-thinking-that/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) [Explore all 336 Anthony Doerr quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) ## More Four quotes > [With young kids (I have four including the newborn) times passes weirdly for me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-s-kemp/with-young-kids-i-have-four-including-the-newborn-times-passes/) [Paul S. Kemp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-s-kemp/) > [When I was 13, I auditioned for the theater school, and I was there for four years. In the meantime, I did my first…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ana-de-armas/when-i-was-13-i-auditioned-for-the-theater-school-and-i-was-there-for/) [Ana de Armas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ana-de-armas/) > [The only regret I have in my career, is my managers wanted a big payday, and I wanted four or five more fights before…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerry-cooney/the-only-regret-i-have-in-my-career-is-my-managers-wanted-a-big/) [Gerry Cooney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerry-cooney/) > [And in your new lives you'll have to live entirely for that one sensation-that of imminent truth. And you're going to have to holler…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-coupland/and-in-your-new-lives-you-ll-have-to-live-entirely-for-that-one/) [Douglas Coupland](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-coupland/) > [I want to make myself and the crowd happy by way of something different, and that makes things difficult. I'm never playing something that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tiesto/i-want-to-make-myself-and-the-crowd-happy-by-way-of-something/) [Tiesto](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tiesto/) > [I always loved as a kid reading 'Spider-Man,' and the 'Fantastic Four' would show up... it was all about that larger universe.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peyton-reed/i-always-loved-as-a-kid-reading-spider-man-and-the-fantastic-four/) [Peyton Reed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peyton-reed/) > [While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abraham-lincoln/while-the-people-retain-their-virtue-and-vigilance-no-administration/) [Abraham Lincoln](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abraham-lincoln/) > [I remember my friend Johnny von Neumann used to say, 'with four parameters I can fit an elephant and with five I can make…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/enrico-fermi/i-remember-my-friend-johnny-von-neumann-used-to-say-with-four/) [Enrico Fermi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/enrico-fermi/) > [The four Cs of making dreams come true: Curiosity, Courage, Consistency, Confidence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walt-disney/the-four-cs-of-making-dreams-come-true-curiosity-courage-consistency/) [Walt Disney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walt-disney/) > [If enough money is involved and enough people believe that two plus two equals five the media will report the story with a straight…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-jacoby/if-enough-money-is-involved-and-enough-people-believe-that-two-plus/) [Susan Jacoby](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-jacoby/) > [I don't think you should ever say, 'This is the last time'. 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