Once I came to really understand the mechanics of three-act structure, my life got a great deal easier. It doesn’t tell you how to write your book, but it helps you understand why things aren’t working, or what kind of beat needs to come next. - Marcus Sakey

There is something inherently hopeful in unlikely friendships, I think. It speaks to our ability to surprise and connect - and how, in all the ways that matter, we are not really that different. - Emily Spurr

Start before you’re ready. - Steven Pressfield

Think of your main characters as dinner guests. Would your friends want to spend ten hours with the characters you’ve created? Your characters can be loveable, or they can be evil, but they’d better be compelling. ― Po Bronson

From journalism I learned to write under pressure, to work with deadlines, to have limited space and time, to conduct an interview, to find information, to research, and above all, to use language as efficiently as possible and to remember always that there is a reader out there. - Isabel Allende

Creative without strategy is called art. Creative with strategy is called advertising. - Jef I. Richards

Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win. - Stephen King

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. - C.S. Lewis

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players - William Shakespeare

That’s what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again. - Walt Disney

At the heart of every story is conflict. Whether external or internal, make it a good one, and remember that this problem is going to shape your character, leaving her forever changed. - Jennifer McMahon

Upon my word, just see how mortal men always put the blame on us gods! We are the source of evil, so they say - when they have only their own madness to think if their miseries are worse than they ought to be. - The Odyssey

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still. - Dorothea Lange

Will you take a look at that? Pretty pathetic, huh? Well, you'll never believe this, but that llama you're looking at was once a human being. And not just any human being. That guy was an emperor. A rich, powerful ball of charisma. Oh, yeah! This is his story. Well, actually, my story. - Emperor's New Groove

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once. - Albert Einstein

You wizards are all the same. You speak nonsense while making wise and meaningful faces. - The Witcher

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. - The Doctor (Doctor Who)

I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. - Stephen King

Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. - Ray BradburyBut how do you know if an ending is truly good for the characters unless you've traveled with them through every page? - Shannon Hale

There is nothing new, from Greek mythology to Shakespeare to every romcom ever made, we’re just reimagining the same 12 plots over and over again -so what makes people keep watching and listening? It’s all about the character. - Jeremy RennerThe inner story, though the same in essence for all, is always single and unique to each human being, never before lived and never to be repeated. - Helen M. Luke