I'm not a writer on a mission, and I'm very suspicious of writers on missions, but I'm also not living a false life.
Marlon JamesRead
The fiction writer in me likes gaps in stories because I can jump into that gap and try to suggest something.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The author appreciates the unfinished aspects of narratives, using them as opportunities for creativity.
Marlon James expresses the idea that gaps or unfinished portions in a story are not limitations but rather invitations for writers to explore and contribute their own interpretations or narratives. This perspective highlights the creative freedom that fiction allows, as writers can fill these gaps with their imagination and personal insights.
Themes
FictionGapsStorytellingCreativityWriter
In practice
Example use cases
During a writing workshop, I shared a quote by Marlon James to encourage participants to embrace the unknown in their narratives.
More from Marlon James
All quotes βIf your depiction of loss doesn't make the reader feel loss, then you didn't depict it right.
Marlon JamesRead
I always tell my students to complicate your characters: never make it easy for the reader. Nobody is ever one thing. That's what makes characters compelling.
Marlon JamesRead
Not every gay person recites poetry or has read Keats. You can get readers through anything if the characters are complicated. You can't dismiss Josey Wales' quite liberal worldview.
Marlon JamesRead
Similar quotes
There are some subjects that can only be tackled in fiction.
John Le CarreRead
Imagine that we are sitting in an ordinary room. Suddenly we are told that there is a corpse behind the door. In an instant the room we are sitting in is completely altered; everything in it has taken on another look; the light, the atmosphere have changed, though they are physically the same. This is because we have changed and the objects are as we conceive them. That is the effect I want to get in my film.
Carl Theodor DreyerRead
Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place.
Martha GrahamRead
Emerald as heavy as a golf course, ruby as dark as an afterbirth, diamond as white as sun on the sea.
Anne SextonRead
When I am halfway there with a painting, it can occasionally be thrilling... But it happens very rarely; usually it's agony... I go to great pains to mask the agony. But the struggle is there. It's the invisible enemy.
Richard DiebenkornRead
Music is my mother and my father; it is my work and my rest...my blood...my compass...my love.
Jeff BuckleyRead