Grief doesn't have a plot. It isn't smooth. There is no beginning and middle and end.

- Ann Hood

The queen of crime, Agatha Christie, was always more concerned about the clockwork cleverness of the plot, never the investigator.

- Christopher Fowler

There is one plot point in one of the 'D'Arnath' books that I don't think I handled as well as I could have. Am I going to tell you which one? No way!

- Carol Berg

If I had a plot that was all set in advance, why would I want go through the agony of writing the novel? A novel is a kind of exploration and discovery, for me at any rate.

- Chaim Potok

Once a novel gets going and I know it is viable, I don't then worry about plot or themes. These things will come in almost automatically because the characters are now pulling the story.

- Chinua Achebe

There is no better place to plot the death of a character than when you're miserable and working out.

- Brad Meltzer

'Harry Potter' shouldn't be children's first experience with suspense and plot turns.

- Berkeley Breathed

The cliches are that it's the most generic Starsky and Hutch plot you can find.

- Ben Stiller

Characters are incredibly important, but I tend to build them around the plot during the outline stage. However, once I'm writing the manuscript, the characters I'm writing dictate how the plot unfolds.

- Aimee Carter

I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

- Anita Desai

I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue.

- Aaron Sorkin

I never make a note of anything; I never even write a plot down.

- Andrew Scott

I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals itself.

- Alice Hoffman

Language is the ticket to plot and character, after all, because both are built out of language.

- Aimee Bender

Some movies I see today have the most dramatic plot points but the actors are not playing them dramatically.

- Aaron Eckhart

I just focus on getting the first scene right, with a few lines about the overall plot, and then the book grows organically.

- Alexander McCall Smith

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.

- Adam Schlesinger

I read Claire Messud's 'The Emperor's Children,' I read Joseph O'Neill's 'Netherland' - but to me, they're not 9/11 novels. In 'The Emperor's Children,' 9/11 felt to me like a piece of the plot; the novel wasn't wrestling with what 9/11 meant. And 'Netherland' felt the same way. I liked both books a lot but I don't see them as 9/11 novels.

- Amy Waldman

I don't want to write about violence, and I don't want to hang a plot on a murder. I think it's cheap.

- Alice McDermott

When we try to push the envelope, there are certain sectors of society that say this is a Zionist plot to sort of destabilize our country, or this is an American agenda.

- Abdullah II of Jordan