For me, fiction's great gift - to writer and reader, alike - is freedom. — Norman Lock Books Copy Share Image
I do seem to favor a deathbed confession as the occasion for my dramatic monologues. — Norman Lock Confession Copy Share Image
I had hoped to be a poet, and for a long time I tried to write poetry. My first published pieces were… — Norman Lock Firsts Copy Share Image
I don't know about ground rules; but I create the world that arrives with the characters or situation or voice in my… — Norman Lock Character Copy Share Image
The persona in my stories may be truer to my "real" self than any alleged objective, factual "I" that I could replicate… — Norman Lock Factual Copy Share Image
I'm too ambitious to give another man credit, even if that other man is only myself in disguise. — Norman Lock Ambitious Copy Share Image
I very much like the idea of the unreliable narrator. Shaping my fictions as monologues - by introducing the "I" - allows… — Norman Lock Fiction Copy Share Image
Metaphysics notwithstanding, I also insert myself in my fictions for no loftier purpose than to give me pleasure: to see myself performing… — Norman Lock Fiction Copy Share Image
I admitted that I did not understand life. What I meant was that I am bewildered by human hearts and motivations, including… — Norman Lock Bewildered Copy Share Image
Eventually, I came to believe, stupidly, that I had exhausted that story's "original" form with its single use. I went on to… — Norman Lock Believe Copy Share Image
When I was awarded a fellowship in poetry by the National Endowment for the Arts (for "Alphabets"), I felt myself suddenly (vaingloriously)… — Norman Lock Alphabet Copy Share Image
I find it only natural for a storyteller to be interested in storytelling and, for anyone who spends the better part of… — Norman Lock Fiction Copy Share Image
In nearly everything I write, I am like a ventriloquist, throwing my voice into my characters, animating them by the slightest twitch… — Norman Lock Alarms Copy Share Image
As a practical matter, I like the dramatic monologue for its compelling intimacy. To be inside one's character, to register his or… — Norman Lock Character Copy Share Image
Because of an instability at my own core, it comforts me to live, fixed, within a story. If reading is our consolation… — Norman Lock Comfort Copy Share Image
A first-person voice helps to ensure the uniformity and cohesiveness of the narrative; it gathers unto itself incidents and characters in its… — Norman Lock Character Copy Share Image
Theatre aside, my penchant for the extended monologue began with my reading of Browning's dramatic monologues, in high school. My inclination to… — Norman Lock Book Copy Share Image
Emotional, physical, and spiritual estrangement and ontological and religious doubt inform my personality, my thoughts, and my characters, which are, more often… — Norman Lock Character Copy Share Image
My fictional worlds were those of a fabulist, of an intellectual fantasist. I was the lawgiver, and the countries and inhabitants of… — Norman Lock Country Copy Share Image
My fondness for extended monologue might have been encouraged by two decades of writing stage and radio dramas. — Norman Lock Decades Copy Share Image
Each piece of writing I undertake, whether a story, novel, play, or poem, begins with an image. — Norman Lock Begins Copy Share Image
It may be old hat, but I see no reason to close off what is for me a fruitful subject of inquiry,… — Norman Lock Books Copy Share Image
I haven't the stature to critique one of our literature's great novels, Tobias; and I'm not one of those who believe The… — Norman Lock Adventure Copy Share Image
I tell myself that, regardless of what source I draw on, I'm writing a new work for reasons peculiar to me and… — Norman Lock Adaptation Copy Share Image
I used to teach writing in a federal prison, and for my students' benefit, I would liken the narrative use of this… — Norman Lock Benefits Copy Share Image
I do believe we are actors in our own dramas, which, moment by moment, we ourselves write; that we are characters in… — Norman Lock Actors Copy Share Image
Many of my short fictions use theatre as a metaphor for situations in which characters find themselves estranged from the larger, uncontrollable… — Norman Lock Arches Copy Share Image
The critique of social inequality, which is very much a part of my story, came about naturally from my recollection of Huck… — Norman Lock Animal Copy Share Image
![“The critique of social inequality, which is very much a part of my story, came about naturally from my recollection of Huck and Tom and the controversy surrounding [Mark] Twain's use of them and from my own passionate interest in civil rights, animal rights, and the right of Earth to survive…” quote by Norman Lock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/26b/norman-lock-21222_animal_the-critique-of-social-inequality-which_145721.jpg)