QuoteProject
I have an idea, and I have a perpetrator, and I write the book along those lines, and when I get to the last chapter, I change the perpetrator so that if I can deceive myself, I can deceive the reader.
Ruth Rendell
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects the creative process of writing and the intentional use of deception in storytelling.

In this quote, Ruth Rendell explores the intricacies of the writing process, particularly the element of surprise in narrative structure. By manipulating the identity of the perpetrator until the last chapter, the author emphasizes the duality of both self-deception and reader deception, highlighting how a well-crafted story can alter perceptions and expectations, engaging both the writer and the reader in a deeper literary experience.

Themes

WritingDeceptionNarrativeStorytellingCreativity

In practice

Example use cases

During a workshop on creative writing, one might share this quote to illustrate the importance of plot twists.

More from Ruth Rendell

While most of the things you've worried about have never happened, it's a different story with the things you haven't worried about. They are the ones that happen.
Ruth RendellRead
I always know when a novel is going to be a Barbara Vine one. In fact I believe that if I weren't to write it as Barbara Vine, I wouldn't be able to write it at all.
Ruth RendellRead

Similar quotes

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.
George Bernard ShawRead
Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature.
Josef AlbersRead
The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.
Louis ArmstrongRead
I was captured by music at a really early age. I was really captured by it. Everything about it. It was my mother… It was my father… It was my play thing. It was my toy. It was the best thing in my life.
Jeff BuckleyRead
Training readers to expect a voice or subject matter from me would interfere with the reinvention I crave. At the same time, I feel almost too able to disappear at times.
Jennifer EganRead
There is anxiety, but it comes after you've finished filming because it's out of your hands; people are editing it, they're cutting it, marketing it. And it's... part your career sort of rides on that. But when you're actually filming it's a team thing and it really feels good there for me.
Hugh JackmanRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.