Friday, December 04, 2009

Missing quotes

When Jane and I were writing Plotting for Beginners, she was very strict and wouldn’t let me use quotes from other writers. I would put them in our text and she would cut them out. She was absolutely right.

There was one point in the book, where Sally Howe was talking about her writing, and I wanted to use a quote from Nora Ephron in her book, Heartburn, because it speaks for Sally and it speaks for me. We didn’t include it. This is it:

OK, a friend asked Nora Ephron “Why do you feel you have to turn everything into a story?”

And Nora Ephron said:

“Because if I tell the story, I control the version

Because if I tell the story, I can make you laugh, and I would rather have you laugh at me than feel sorry for me

Because if I tell the story, it doesn’t hurt so much

Because if I tell the story, I can get on with it.”

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