Character Quote by Neil Gaiman

“The themes in your story are probably sabotaging your relationships or at least making them more difficult.”

— Michelle Skeen

Every story I write starts with a dilemma or a theme. Once I am convinced that this is the issue that is perturbing my…

— Siegfried Lenz

Sometimes, I have themes that interest me or that touch on larger issues but, really, I'm just trying to figure out the plot, or…

— Brian Selznick

Any plot you impose on your characters will be onomatopoetic: PLOT. I say don't worry about plot. Worry about the characters. Let what they…

— Anne Lamott

Once a novel gets going and I know it is viable, I don't then worry about plot or themes. These things will come in…

— Chinua Achebe

I'm not sure if a writer should talk about themes. Themes arrive out of the deeper structure and concerns, but to me, the main…

— David Means

I decided to make myself a little less precious with my storytelling. I think you can see from the first three pieces in the…

— Lucy Corin

I don't really do themes. I might accidentally, but themes are an emergent phenomena of the writing of the book, of just trying to…

— Iain Banks

I'm always writing across the same themes. But with short stories, I'm doing something different than with novels. In some ways, they're coming from…

— Lynn Coady

If you know your characters well enough, you aren't trying to grasp for storylines. You're really thinking about their flaws and their passions and…

— Felicia Day

Don't let your characters tell you what to do. They can be pushy. Some writers say that they create characters and then just sort…

— Chelsea Cain

A strong theme is always running through a well-told story,

— Andrew Stanton