A Quote by Joshua Cohen

You write a novel by inventing a world and inventing the rules that govern that world. Then you break the rules when you want to.

Joshua Cohen

Quote Topics

Break Govern Inventing Novel Rules Then Want World Write

Quote Author

Joshua Cohen
American - Novelist
Born: 1980

The Japanese are great at inventing complex systems of rules, and not so great at explaining those rules to foreign visitors.

Charles C. Mann

Individuals who break through by inventing a new paradigm are almost always either very young men or very new to the field whose paradigm they change. These are the men who, being little committed by prior practice to the traditional rules of normal science, are particularly likely to see that those rules no longer define a playable game and conceive another set that can replace them.

Thomas Kuhn

It's very important, at least to me as a writer, that there be some rules on the table when I'm writing. Rules come from genres. You're writing in a genre, there are rules, which is great because then you can break the rules. That's when really exciting things happen.

Lev Grossman

I think that the essence of being an artist is to break rules. You have to learn rules, and you have to break them, because if you make art only by the rules, then you make very boring art.

Johann Johannsson

The scientific world, the materialistic world, the world of commerce, the world of business, the world of individualism, the world of capitalism, world of communism - all these worlds are the old story now. Where we think we exploit nature, we exploit people. Market rules, profit rules, money rules. We work for name, fame, power, money, profit. That's the old story.

Satish Kumar

And I'm the first one to tell people to break the rules. But you can only break the rules once you know what the rules are. The other thing is, fashion is the last design discipline to actually have academic texts and historical analysis.

Tim Gunn

If you're building a fantasy world that exists outside of the rules of our real world, why would you write it to conform to the rules and binaries that we have today? Why still limit yourself?

Lachlan Watson

In dealing with those nations that break rules and laws, I believe that we must develop alternatives to violence that are tough enough to actually change behavior -- for if we want a lasting peace, then the words of the international community must mean something. Those regimes that break the rules must be held accountable. Sanctions must exact a real price. Intransigence must be met with increased pressure -- and such pressure exists only when the world stands together as one.

Barack Obama

I think there's a lot of people who right now are worried that people are going down frivolous paths, like inventing new social networks or new games, instead of inventing the cures for cancer or fundamental technologies that will change the world.

Charles Duhigg

There are certain things that we can deal with by following the rules. But at times, we find the rules restrict you from doing the right things. On such occasions, we have to rethink - either you change the rules or break the rules.

Mahathir Mohamad

Rules matter, and to be rules they need to be universal in form: always do this, never do that. But it is foolish to rule out in advance the possibility that an occasion might arise when normal rules just don't apply. Rules are not there to be broken, but sometimes break them we must.

Julian Baggini

When we have this description, of what a sketch is, itsattributes, we can then start inventing new things thatshare those attributes, and therefore improve our currenttechnics by inventing new and better tools that help ussketch.

Bill Buxton

Rebels learn the rules better than the rule-makers do. Rebels learn where the holes are, where the rules can best be breached. Become an expert at the rules. Then break them with creativity and style.