Top 280 Plot Quotes

Local teenagers killed in a car crash is a suburban legend, a stock plot line.

The way that Dickens structured his books has a form that we most readily recognize now from, say, the great T.V. series, like ‘The Wire’ or ‘The Sopranos.’ There’s one central plot line, but then from that spin off all kinds of subplots.

Narrativity presumes a special taste for plot. And this taste for plot was always very present in the Anglo-Saxon countries and that explains their high quality of detective novels.

When you get right down to it, there’s something uniquely satisfying in being gripped by a great plot, in begrudging whatever real-world obligations might prevent you from finding out what happens next.

I think I’m good at metaphors and descriptions. Plot doesn’t come naturally to me, so I work really hard at it.

I don’t plot, and I don’t plan. I like to be surprised like the reader.

Plot is tremendously important to me: I can’t stand books where nothing happens, and I can’t imagine ever writing a novel without at least one murder.

As long as I like the script, speak the language and feel interested in the plot, I can play any role.

The villain drives the plot.

Plot is what happens in your story. Every story needs structure, just as every body needs a skeleton. It is how you ‘flesh out and clothe’ your structure that makes each story unique.

For years, I sort of would try to write a story that somehow fit the title. And I don’t think it happened for maybe another four years that I actually thought of a story, the plot of a story that corresponded to that phrase.

I find inspiration in many places. Sometimes music gives me the kernel of a story. Sometimes it’s dissatisfaction with the plot of a movie or a book that gets me thinking. Sometimes it’s love of a movie or book.

I never make notes; just a few small details when I’m writing, but nothing much. The plot is never written down. I will tell the story to myself, but I won’t plan it. I’ll speak the narrative in my head for a while.

Giving consumers the choice of having it all in one big bite means different viewers are in many different places in the book, making it hard to discuss without spoiling the plot. The intervals between first-run programming provide a space for communion and that tantalizing sense of anticipation.

Maybe I should have taken a few chances. That’s not to say I want to go make ‘Star Wars’, but I need to shift my career into the studio world. That’s where my head was at when I thought of the original plot.

The time has mainly gone on getting Inform into a decent shape for public use. I suppose the plot of ‘Curses’ makes a sequel conceivable when compared with, say, the plot of ‘Hamlet’ but none is planned.

Members walk into the chamber full of hatred. They believe the worst lies about the other side. Two senators stopped by my office just a few hours ago. Why? They had a plot to nail somebody on the other side. That’s what Congress has come to.

I don’t think I’m a natural novelist. Plot is definitely one of my weaker points. I’ve been working on it a long time, and it’s not getting much better.

Movies are all about plot. Theater, even if it’s story heavy, it’s about ideas.

Anyone who has ever tried to plot a detective mystery knows that the hardest thing to come up with is motive.

When a book is just a plot, you know, two men fight for the love of a woman in a wild frontier, I immediately ask, ‘Why?’

When I storyboard, they’re just fragments of thoughts. I write in three acts like a movie, so I have my plot points up on the preliminary storyboard.

‘White Teeth’ has far too many characters, and its plot is tortured. But Smith has an astonishing intellect. She writes sharp dialogue for every age and race – and she’s funny as hell.

I always try to tell a good story, one with a compelling plot that will keep the pages turning. That is my first and primary goal. Sometimes I can tackle an issue-homelessness, tobacco litigation, insurance fraud, the death penalty-and wrap a good story around it.

I retain characters more often than plot, but what seems to happen is that I latch on to specific moments, turns of phrase, and dialogue as touchstones for me to recall what happened in the book. Kind of like freeze-frame.

For many years, I read mystery novels for relaxation. But my tastes were too narrow – and, having read all of Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, I discovered that the implausibility and the thinness of the people distracted me unduly from the plot.

It is very challenging to make a fresh screenplay based on a used plot.

My outlines can be 10-20 pages in length and focus primarily on the physical active plot over the emotional plot.

I know my fans want me on the screen. But I think hero-worship should not be allowed to corrupt the plot and narrative of a film.

The first act is the easiest to plot. The second act is always the hardest to plot. Generally a good, you know, sometimes the third act can be difficult because you can get into a rut in the third act – everybody runs to their Corvette, has a chase, and you catch the bad guy.

You don’t idea your way into a plot but plot your way into an idea.

I think with musicals, it’s much more part of the script. They don’t want songs that would stop the show; they need songs that keep the plot moving.

I was so obsessed by Lisbeth Salander and all the characters, but of course if you’re going to write a crime novel worthy of Stieg Larsson, you need a plot, don’t you?

Before Charlottesville, it might have been easy to dismiss the plot of ‘Mudbound’ as no longer relevant. Now, I feel like audiences will be more receptive to the material – and to interrogating their personal histories after watching it.

I read a lot of literary theory when I was in graduate school, especially about novels, and the best book I ever read about endings was Peter Brooks’ ‘Reading for the Plot. ‘

In ‘Notting Hill,’ I was part of a whole plot line over six scenes that was completely taken out. That was rather depressing.

There is no better test of character than when you’re tossed into crisis. That’s when we see one’s true colors shine through. So I try my best to make my characters personally involved in the plot, in a way that stresses them and tests them.

Mirzapur’s female characters are very strong, liberated women. Infact, the boys are leaning on us and we are contributing to the plot in a very strong manner.

While I was writing ‘Elizabeth Is Missing’ and struggling with the intricacies of the plot, I told myself the next book would be really simple and linear, and I’d have it all worked out before I set down a single word.

I think plot is very overrated. Plot is obviously necessary, but what I really care about is emotionally affecting the audience. Having a thought myself and then an emotional experience myself, somehow transferring that to the audience.

If you create a movie that is only character driven, with a weak plot, then you – as a director, you have to make sure you keep pushing the tempo.

My parents and I always look at movies and just think, ‘What’s missing?’ from the plot to the people of color or diversity in general.

In order to have a plot, you have to have a conflict, something bad has to happen.

Two things I do well in books are sex and violence, but I don’t want gratuitous sex or violence. The sex and violence are only as graphic as need be. And never included unless it furthers the plot or character development.

‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’ is an epistolary novel – one told in letters. I had no idea how much fun it would be, puzzling together the plot with letters and documents.

My key interest in choosing scripts is character-driven stories, because there are so many stories that sacrifice character for plot.

I was Paul Schrader’s assistant for six months before I went to film school, and he’s very much about knowing what’s going to happen on every page before you even start writing dialogue – the entire plot and character arcs are mapped out.

I think situations are more important than plot and character.

I start with a beat sheet, which is more of an abbreviated outline. It hits all the major plot points. From there, I move to note cards. But the most important part of my process is my inspiration board.

Opponents of civil liberties contend the NSA data collection has made our country more safe, but even the most vocal defenders of the program have failed to identify a single thwarted plot.

I love to have real people of history interact with my fictional characters. History gives me the plot. I research the period meticulously, and then I blend in a romantic and sensual love story to give it balance. The heavier the history, the more romantic the couple must be.

To me, action has to come from the plot.

There are so many things we have not seen in ‘Spider-Man’ yet… I want to use bad guys never seen in movies. The first films were so traditional and so scrupulously followed the character’s classic plot… So there’s a lot of stuff left in stock. ‘The Clone Saga,’ for example.

Language description and metaphors seem readily available. The things I have to work harder at are plot, pacing, and form.