9 Quotes by James Thayer

  • Author James Thayer
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    I can only write one novel at a time. The author of the Perry Mason novels, Erle Stanley Gardner, often worked on four novels simultaneously, and produced a million words a year. I’m envious.

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  • Author James Thayer
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    On opening sentences: “If in the first chapter a hurricane is going to blow down an oak tree which falls through the kitchen roof, there’s no need to first describe the kitchen.”

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  • Author James Thayer
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    I need time to develop the idea into a plot before I talk about it.

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  • Author James Thayer
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    When I was hired by the University of Washington extension school to teach the one-year fiction writing course – 96 classroom hours – I quickly determined that I knew only about an hour’s worth off the top of my head.

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  • Author James Thayer
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    I researched fiction writing for months before I taught my first class, much of it looking for strong techniques from bestselling authors.

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  • Author James Thayer
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    None of great sages of China preached the precept of love as a guideline for human behavior...

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  • Author James Thayer
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    My experience is that an original and compelling idea for a novel is a rare thing.

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  • Author James Thayer
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    I’ve never discovered the idea for my next novel while I was still working on the current novel. Other writers don’t suffer this.

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  • Author James Thayer
  • Quote

    My students – all adults – bring a lot of writing skill to the first class, and they and I get better as the class progresses.

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