Big picture Quote by Ottessa Moshfegh

I know it may sound silly, but I think my short stories have a life and identity of their own. They crop up in…

— Morley Callaghan

I find my characters and stories in many varied places; sometimes they pop out of newspaper articles, obscure historical texts, lively dinner party conversations…

— Lynn Nottage

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

Short stories are wonderful and extremely challenging, and the joy of them, because it only takes me three or four months to write, I…

— Anthony Doerr

I really just choose stories that are compelling, have interesting trends and characters, and hopefully say something larger about society.

— David Grann

I just always try to find an interesting story and tell it well. That's a hard enough thing to do, whether it's a piece…

— Paul Haggis

All stories interest me, and some haunt me until I end up writing them.

— Isabel Allende

I really am just trying to tell stories. But stories are often grounded in larger events and themes. They don't have to be -…

— Neal Stephenson

My stories usually begin with the characters and some elements of how power (personal, political, magical) functions in the world. The rest develops as…

— Leigh Bardugo

What I want to do is tell stories about normal people in the American suburbs. I don't write the book where it's a conspiracy…

— Harlan Coben

All my stories are mainly slice-of-life and rooted to real issues and situations that I have experienced myself.

— Shoojit Sircar

I don't want to steal anybody's story. I very much want to use the stories that I hear to get lost in my mind,…

— David Levithan