Doe Quote by Isobelle Carmody

The effect produced by a short story depends almost entirely on its form.

— Edith Wharton

“The short story is not, as some believe, a lesser form of literature than the novel.”

— Andrew Barger

With short stories, the story-teller must have a story to tell, not merely some sweet prose to take out for a walk

— Herbert Gold

The function of the Short Story is to be interesting, to convey vivid impressions, an therefore it must, to a degree, work with the…

— Henry Seidel Canby

It is my belief that we as human beings have a need to tell stories - I think it's evolutionary. So you can think…

— Aleksandar Hemon

Short stories demand a certain awareness of one's own intentions, a certain narrowing of the focus.

— Joan Didion

“A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell him things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.”

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

“a story is a letter the author writes to himself to tell what he wouldn't discover otherwise.”

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

A short story is "a short prose narrative, requiring from a half hour, to one or two hours in its perusal...having conceived, with deliberate…

— Edgar Allan Poe

The short story feels like the most natural length for prose fiction, or certainly for the kind of ideas and situations I like to…

— Nicholas Royle

(The short story) is a form that has all the power of the novel - some would say more - but none of the…

— Joseph O'Connor

“It is a law of the story-teller's art that he does not tell a story. It is the listener who tells it. The story-teller…

— Melville Davisson Post