Am Quote by 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

I try to employ a different strategy for each story. Often, I'll have a specific look in mind before I even have the story…

— Daniel Clowes

A story is built on characters and reasons.

— Steven Amsterdam

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 try to construct each of my novels around one central theme - core tensions shared by the characters.

— Chris Pavone

I'm not like a Sears Catalog of ideas. I don't have that many ideas. I've more or less written them over the years. Usually,…

— Brian Helgeland

As a matter of writing philosophy, if there is one, I try not to ever plot a story. I try to write it from…

— Anonymous

We have a writing process that's very much you try to create the character in a complicated way and then you let the story…

— Aaron Ehasz

Before I ever begin writing a new story, I have to sketch my characters out on paper. It's part of my process of understanding…

— Marie Lu

All stories interest me, and some haunt me until I end up writing them. Certain themes keep coming up: justice, loyalty, violence, death, political…

— Isabel Allende

I'm not thinking much about overall themes or preoccupations or anything like that. Instead I'm just trusting that, if I'm working hard, various notions…

— George Saunders

There is a common theme, though, in the stories I have told, which are usually associations of characters or families that are formed outside…

— Gus Van Sant