Friday, September 4, 2015

on writing - a few quotes on short stories

When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in
love with the world around you.  - George Saunders

Great short stories and great jokes have a lot in common.  Both depend on what
communication-theorists sometimes called "exformation," which is a certain
quantity of vital information removed from but evoked by a communication in such
a way as to cause a kind of explosion of associative connections within the recipient. 
- David Foster Wallace

The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's
whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side.  - Emma Donoghue