Narrative art the novel from Murasaki to Proust has produced great works of poetry.

The decision to write in prose instead of poetry is made more by the readers than by writers. Almost no one is interested in reading narrative in verse.

I guess maybe I try to make movies that are closer to real life than are many Hollywood movies. But I still try to stay within a commercial narrative a contemporary American vernacular.

My mom used to tell me stories at night read books to me - and I read 'em over and over and over again. And you know what I learned from that? I went back and looked at everything - Why do I like reading the same stories over and over and over again? What was I some kind of nincompoop? No - the narrative gave me connection with my mom.

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

I do insist on making what I hope is sense so there's always a coherent narrative or argument that the reader can follow.

With fiction you can talk about plot character and narrative whereas a poem brings home the fact that everything that happens in a work of literature happens in terms of language. And this is daunting stuff to deal with.

All the gossip and craziness becomes a kind of sustained narrative which in turn can become history. It's scary.

My idea in terms of managing a narrative or in thinking in my creative life is that you could easily argue that the past the present and the future all occur simultaneously and if you can postulate that then you're not strictly bound to a linear narrative.

I love the freedom that the narrative form provides.