Obviously you have to make a profit to put out a newspaper. I'm not an idiot. But when the margins are in excess of 25 per cent you're talking about greed.
Carl HiaasenRead
Lots of people can write a good first page but to sustain it, that's my litmus test. If I flip to the middle of the book and there's a piece of dialogue that's just outstanding, or a description, then I'll flip back to the first page and start it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The ability to maintain quality in writing is crucial, not just to start strong but to keep the reader engaged throughout.
In this quote, Carl Hiaasen emphasizes the importance of sustaining quality in writing beyond just the initial appeal of a first page. He suggests that the true test of a good book is whether it continues to captivate the reader through compelling dialogue and descriptions further along in the text, illustrating that lasting engagement is what truly matters in storytelling.
Themes
WritingLiteratureEngagementQualityStorytelling
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop on sustaining narrative quality.
More from Carl Hiaasen
All quotes →As frightening as this may sound, what you see in the books is the way I see the world. And so far I haven't seen anything, either in Florida or elsewhere, to dissuade me from it.
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To me, the newspaper business was a way to learn about life and how things worked in the real world and how people spoke. You learn all the skills - you learn to listen, you learn to take notes - everything you use later as a novelist was valuable training in the newspaper world. But I always wanted to write novels.
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When you're given a newspaper column, you're not being paid to sit on a fence and scratch your chin and say 'On the one hand this' and 'On the other hand that.' You're getting paid for your opinion.
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The greatest sin for a writer is to be boring.
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The Florida in my novels is not as seedy as the real Florida. It's hard to stay ahead of the curve. Every time I write a scene that I think is the sickest thing I have ever dreamed up, it is surpassed by something that happens in real life.
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