October 18th, 2009 / 8:45 pm
Snippets

who writes good dialogue?  what is good about it?

86 Comments

  1. Gian

      John O’Hara.
      You can hear it.

  2. Gian

      John O’Hara.
      You can hear it.

  3. ryan

      Pete Fromm is a master of dialogue

  4. ryan

      Pete Fromm is a master of dialogue

  5. Nathan (Nate) Tyree

      David Mammett

      It sounds real at first, but then on a second time through you realize that no one every talked that cool

  6. Nathan (Nate) Tyree

      David Mammett

      It sounds real at first, but then on a second time through you realize that no one every talked that cool

  7. Jonny Ross

      noah cicero.

      it’s how me and people i know talk. and it’s honest. painfully so at times.

  8. Jonny Ross

      noah cicero.

      it’s how me and people i know talk. and it’s honest. painfully so at times.

  9. mike young

      william gaddis: tape-recorder realistic, still rhythmic
      mary robison: juiced for the good bits but faithful to colloquialism

  10. mike young

      william gaddis: tape-recorder realistic, still rhythmic
      mary robison: juiced for the good bits but faithful to colloquialism

  11. Jonny Ross

      classic mamet one-liner: “action talks and bullshit walks.” american buffalo.

      countless others. would need a seperate thread to cover them all.

  12. Jonny Ross

      classic mamet one-liner: “action talks and bullshit walks.” american buffalo.

      countless others. would need a seperate thread to cover them all.

  13. Edward Champion

      A casual query: do you folks have any love for Stanley Elkin’s dialogue? It is not so much realist, but it is certainly reflective — just as Gaddis’s party scenes are. Invaluable if one is hunting through time searching for necessary impressions that are conducive to the imagination.

  14. Edward Champion

      A casual query: do you folks have any love for Stanley Elkin’s dialogue? It is not so much realist, but it is certainly reflective — just as Gaddis’s party scenes are. Invaluable if one is hunting through time searching for necessary impressions that are conducive to the imagination.

  15. Blake Butler

      Elkin is the boss.

  16. Blake Butler

      Elkin is the boss.

  17. stu

      Mamet is very gritty, and from an actor’s standpoint, very fun to perform. I would say the same about David Ives, who does a similar style, albeit slightly more cerebral. Less rawness.

  18. stu

      Mamet is very gritty, and from an actor’s standpoint, very fun to perform. I would say the same about David Ives, who does a similar style, albeit slightly more cerebral. Less rawness.

  19. darby

      everyone writes good dialogue

  20. darby

      everyone writes good dialogue

  21. alec niedenthal

      yeah, “the magic kingdom” especially.

  22. alec niedenthal

      yeah, “the magic kingdom” especially.

  23. Maurice

      Richard Maxwell. The Coen Brothers. James Ellroy. Stephen Dixon. Dash Shaw. Matthew Roberson. Emmanuel Carrere. Magnus Mills. James Purdy. Muriel Spark. DeLillo. Curtis White. Stephen Wright. Didion. Chris Ware. Phoebe Gloeckner. DFW. Pinter. Will Eno. Martin McDonough. Percival Everett. Johnny Ryan. Nathanael West. Elaine May.

      They all have their own style.

  24. Maurice

      Richard Maxwell. The Coen Brothers. James Ellroy. Stephen Dixon. Dash Shaw. Matthew Roberson. Emmanuel Carrere. Magnus Mills. James Purdy. Muriel Spark. DeLillo. Curtis White. Stephen Wright. Didion. Chris Ware. Phoebe Gloeckner. DFW. Pinter. Will Eno. Martin McDonough. Percival Everett. Johnny Ryan. Nathanael West. Elaine May.

      They all have their own style.

  25. Matt Cozart

      Raymond Queneau in Zazie in the Metro. It’s maybe my favorite kind of dialogue—not natural speech, but what natural speech would sound like if the world were a more fun place. Like Mamet, it’s sort of clipped and fast and rolls off the tongue and down the street, weaving back and forth among slower pedestrians.

  26. sampink

      i just realized that this is a poorly formed question. this question could mean:

      1. the choice of what to include
      2. the importance of what is said to what it says about something else (maybe that is another kind of dialogue, namely the dialogue what characters speaking have with the rest of the book)
      3. how the dialogue replaces non-dialogue
      4. i am sure people will interpret the question to also mean how realistic it is
      5. amount
      6. other shit
      7. maybe how the object speaking in the book must, if indirectly, say something to the reader.
      8. how the dialogue speaks to alternatives in the book.
      9. other shit

  27. Matt Cozart

      Raymond Queneau in Zazie in the Metro. It’s maybe my favorite kind of dialogue—not natural speech, but what natural speech would sound like if the world were a more fun place. Like Mamet, it’s sort of clipped and fast and rolls off the tongue and down the street, weaving back and forth among slower pedestrians.

  28. sampink

      i just realized that this is a poorly formed question. this question could mean:

      1. the choice of what to include
      2. the importance of what is said to what it says about something else (maybe that is another kind of dialogue, namely the dialogue what characters speaking have with the rest of the book)
      3. how the dialogue replaces non-dialogue
      4. i am sure people will interpret the question to also mean how realistic it is
      5. amount
      6. other shit
      7. maybe how the object speaking in the book must, if indirectly, say something to the reader.
      8. how the dialogue speaks to alternatives in the book.
      9. other shit

  29. sampink

      you suck i hate you

  30. sampink

      you suck i hate you

  31. darby

      which number corresponds with why you asked it.

  32. sampink

      it would be weird to read a book that is two people at a restaurant who take turns talking, and they collaboratively tell one story as if a separate narrator.

  33. darby

      which number corresponds with why you asked it.

  34. sampink

      it would be weird to read a book that is two people at a restaurant who take turns talking, and they collaboratively tell one story as if a separate narrator.

  35. sampink

      if i remember right, i just randomly thought the word dialogue and then thought about how sometimes it’s my favorite part of something and how sometimes there is barely any and i don’t miss it.

  36. sampink

      if i remember right, i just randomly thought the word dialogue and then thought about how sometimes it’s my favorite part of something and how sometimes there is barely any and i don’t miss it.

  37. darby

      okay

  38. darby

      okay

  39. Gian

      Fuck all these other teams. Elkin should win the superbowl.

  40. Gian

      Fuck all these other teams. Elkin should win the superbowl.

  41. Peter

      Charles Portis!

  42. Peter

      Charles Portis!

  43. Kyle Minor

      Richard Price!

  44. Kyle Minor

      Richard Price!

  45. The Robert Walser Society of W

      Julie Hecht

      She : Thomas Bernhard :: Eugene Lim or Jesse Ball : Robert Walser

  46. The Robert Walser Society of Western Massachusetts

      Julie Hecht

      She : Thomas Bernhard :: Eugene Lim or Jesse Ball : Robert Walser

  47. Corey

      Walser Society: haha!

      Dialogue: Pinter forever! Also: Schnitzler, Beckett, Gifford, Nabokov.
      ps. every one of my favourite authors writes good dialogue.

      What is good? Different kinds of embodiment, detailing of a specific voice, the development of a voice I have never heard before, embedding new social tensions in dialogue, awareness of silence, ellipsis… We could talk about this forever really. But this question should be asked. Some prose writers are afraid of dialogue and it shows.

  48. Corey

      Walser Society: haha!

      Dialogue: Pinter forever! Also: Schnitzler, Beckett, Gifford, Nabokov.
      ps. every one of my favourite authors writes good dialogue.

      What is good? Different kinds of embodiment, detailing of a specific voice, the development of a voice I have never heard before, embedding new social tensions in dialogue, awareness of silence, ellipsis… We could talk about this forever really. But this question should be asked. Some prose writers are afraid of dialogue and it shows.

  49. KevinS

      Lipsyte. Hannah.

  50. KevinS

      Lipsyte. Hannah.

  51. Rauan Klassnik

      Cormac McCarthy– despite all his warts i liked his dialogue…..

  52. Rauan Klassnik

      Cormac McCarthy– despite all his warts i liked his dialogue…..

  53. joeseife

      E L M O R E L E O N A R D

  54. joeseife

      E L M O R E L E O N A R D

  55. Adam R

      Adam Robinson

  56. Adam R

      Adam Robinson

  57. Nathan Tyree

      agreed.

  58. Nathan Tyree

      agreed.

  59. Schulyer Prinz

      Queneau. Cortazar. Bolano.

  60. Schulyer Prinz

      Queneau. Cortazar. Bolano.

  61. davidpeak

      amen

  62. davidpeak

      amen

  63. mike

      this is ‘sort of’ what danielewski’s fifty year sword does but it doesn’t really seem important to the book itself

  64. mike

      this is ‘sort of’ what danielewski’s fifty year sword does but it doesn’t really seem important to the book itself

  65. Joseph Young

      mike leigh. sure, it’s also his actors, and a lot is improvised, but i’ve thought watching his movies, ‘dialogue as brilliant as shakespeare.’

  66. Joseph Young

      mike leigh. sure, it’s also his actors, and a lot is improvised, but i’ve thought watching his movies, ‘dialogue as brilliant as shakespeare.’

  67. mimi

      Top of my list: Edward Albee for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”. Especially when delivered by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis. Over two hours of glorious, sustained, crazy-good etc etc etc
      Tennessee Williams.
      Quentin Tarantino for “Pulp Fiction”‘s “composed” script, delivered by a killer cast. “I’m a mushroom cloud layin’ motherfucker, motherfucker.”

  68. mimi

      Top of my list: Edward Albee for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”. Especially when delivered by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis. Over two hours of glorious, sustained, crazy-good etc etc etc
      Tennessee Williams.
      Quentin Tarantino for “Pulp Fiction”‘s “composed” script, delivered by a killer cast. “I’m a mushroom cloud layin’ motherfucker, motherfucker.”

  69. stu

      Agreed.

      I do find it interesting (and cool) that many of the comments have focused on theater and cinema. Have you ever seen “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” on stage? In a small environment, black box sort of environment, it can be even more intense.

  70. stu

      Agreed.

      I do find it interesting (and cool) that many of the comments have focused on theater and cinema. Have you ever seen “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” on stage? In a small environment, black box sort of environment, it can be even more intense.

  71. Amber

      Second Pinter, second Beckett. And Pinter for his pauses as much as his dialogue. When I acted, I never felt dialogue was more at home in my mouth yet more strange and shifting and dangerous than when it was a Pinter or Beckett play. It was like being given multiple personality disorder and immense verbal clarity all at the same time.

      It that makes any sense.

  72. Amber

      Second Pinter, second Beckett. And Pinter for his pauses as much as his dialogue. When I acted, I never felt dialogue was more at home in my mouth yet more strange and shifting and dangerous than when it was a Pinter or Beckett play. It was like being given multiple personality disorder and immense verbal clarity all at the same time.

      It that makes any sense.

  73. Amber

      What about worst dialogue ever from a great writer? Or is that even possible?

  74. Amber

      What about worst dialogue ever from a great writer? Or is that even possible?

  75. Nathan Tyree

      Burroughs. Great dialogue

  76. Nathan Tyree

      Burroughs. Great dialogue

  77. stu

      Twain. Howells. Wilde. Bogosian. Elmore Leonard (I’m glad someone brought him up). Hanif Kureishi.

  78. stu

      Twain. Howells. Wilde. Bogosian. Elmore Leonard (I’m glad someone brought him up). Hanif Kureishi.

  79. Nathan Tyree

      I saw a production where the audience was on stage with the actors. I was hit by flying glass. It was remarkable

  80. Nathan Tyree

      I saw a production where the audience was on stage with the actors. I was hit by flying glass. It was remarkable

  81. stu

      Haha! Good one.

  82. stu

      Haha! Good one.

  83. marco

      Wodehouse

  84. marco

      Wodehouse

  85. barry

      mark twain

  86. barry

      mark twain