#tori

...What happens is of little significance compared with the stories we tell ourselves about what happens. Events matter little, only stories of events affect us. ↗

— Rabih Alameddine

#reality #stories #story #storytelling #perception

His voice was low, and I think he would've been hot if he weren't radiating that air of "I Am Super Evil--No, Really--And Not In The Sexy Way. ↗

— Rachel Hawkins

#hex-hall #mirror-man #rachel-hawkins #sexy #sophie

For me a page of good prose is where one hears the rain. A page of good prose is when one hears the noise of battle.... A page of good prose seems to me the most serious dialogue that well-informed and intelligent men and women carry on today in their endeavor to make sure that the fires of this planet burn peaceably. ↗

— John Cheever

#prose #short-stories #intelligence

A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it. ↗

— Edgar Allan Poe

#writing #short-story

Short fiction seems more targeted - hand grenades of ideas, if you will. When they work, they hit, they explode, and you never forget them. Long fiction feels more like atmosphere: it's a lot smokier and less defined. ↗

— Paolo Bacigalupi

#short-fiction #short-stories #short-story #short-story

At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book--that string of confused, alien ciphers--shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader. ↗

— Alberto Manguel

#childhood #literature #reading #stories #words

I want to fill every part of you, breathe the air from your lungs and leave my handprints on your soul. I want to give you more pleasure than you can bear. ↗

— Lisa Kleypas

#historical

To see the years touch ye gives me joy", he whispered, "for it means that ye live. ↗

— Diana Gabaldon

#historical-fiction #romance #scotland #historical

Vampires, real vampires, didn't nibble on the necks of nubile young virgins. They tore people to pieces and sucked the blood out of the chunks. ↗

— David Wellington

#vampires #historical

Historically inaccurate.' Adrian gestured at me with his other hand, the one not on my shoulder. "Who the hell looks at you and says 'historically inaccurate'? ↗

— Richelle Mead

#sydney-sage #historical