I hate even the idea of a synopsis. When stories are really working, when you're providing subtextual exploration and things that are deeply layered, you're obligated to not say things out loud.
Did you know that Christmas means “Christ” (Jesus) and “mas” (a celebration)? The story about Jesus is found in the name of that special day when we celebrate His birth!
I don't have a plan for a story when I sit down to write. I would get quite bored carrying it out.
It's a discovery of a story when I write a book, a case of inching ahead on each page and discovering what's beyond in the darkness, beyond where you're writing.
All of my problems are rather complicated - I need an entire novel to deal with them, not a short story or a movie. It's like a personal therapy.
Occasionally, human beings are briefly de-animated, and the stories of people who are briefly de-animated that interest me the most are those having to do with the cold.
The big story of 2013, a very distressing year, is that Americans continue not to be able to find the full-time jobs they need, and that's something which the president has to recognize as the first priority of his administration.
I'm always working on a few different stories at once, so there's always some really big coffee table book I'm carrying around.
If you can see yourself as an artist, and you can see that your life is your own creation, then why not create the most beautiful story for yourself?
I feel like I have so many stories basting in my mind, and they come busting out when they're ready.
Of course, everyone knows my story of being born in Russia and moving to the United States at 7. For a few years people would say, 'Well, she's living in the United States, but she's Russian.'
If it's a modern-day story dealing with certain ethnic groups, I think I could open up certain scenes for improvisation, while staying within the structure of the script.
My father had this mythological sense of the old New York, and he used to tell me stories about these old gangs, particularly the Forty Thieves in the Fourth Ward.
I mean I have a project that I have been wanting to make for quite a while now; and basically, it's a story of my parents growing up in the Lower East Side.
It'd be impossible to capture the feel of 'All Quiet on the Western Front' in a novel starring Mace Windu; 'All Quiet' is a tragic coming-of-age story.
An author's dream does not necessarily come instantly. Rather, it is cultivated and nurtured, every epiphany and idea are like rain drops that bring life to the story being written.
Over the years, many in the public have become numb to news of financial corruption, partly because too many of these stories involve banker-on-banker crime.
I don't think teams play this game to hurt other guys. I don't think that's the story. We don't play this game to hurt one another.
The problem became this: We became a caricature of ourselves. We were after light, and it began to look as though we were after heat, not to reveal some information or not to find out the story.
My mother tells this story that when I first went to school, I thought I was going to help the teachers. I didn't realise I was going to get educated.
All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story... They are terrible people.
