Asks Quote by J. V. Cunningham

“An idea doesn’t have to be a plot notion, just a place to begin creating. Plots often generate themselves when one begins to ask…

— Neil Gaiman

No work of literature is the product of only one or two conscious ideas. A story is mysteriously dense of meaning.

— Carol Bly

If a theme or idea is too near the surface, the novel becomes simply a tract illustrating an idea.

— Elizabeth Bowen

Plots are ... what the writer sees with.

— Eudora Welty

“Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice.”

— Cyril Connolly

“I just used a very simple way to explain what are deep ideas, and why can't that be literature?”

— Mian Mian

When I put together a graphic novel, I don't think about literary prose. I think about storytelling.

— Ted Rall

I'm not an enormous proponent of plot as a reader. It's about other things; my reading has become specialized over the years.

— Patrick deWitt

I think if I had been writing fiction, where the work is entirely dependent on the writer's creativity and the potential directions the narrative…

— Laura Hillenbrand

Considerations of plot do a great deal of heavy lifting when it comes to long-form narrative - readers will overlook the most ham-fisted prose…

— Lynn Coady

The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.

— Thomas Mann

Ideas can come while reading a good novel.

— Ben van Berkel