Nicole Mones

In my own life I studied music, not creative writing; I see a novel as music - an opening as an overture, themes and subplots as lines in a fugue. The chance to write a novel about a musician boxed in by all kinds of limitations but who plays out his ultimate struggle for freedom at the piano was irresistible.

American Novelist

Lauren Willig

One of our fundamental human needs is finding our partner that we hope we will stay with for the rest of our lives. You often find the same search in other genres. The mystery novel has a romance subplot. Literary novels often focus on that relationship but do not often end well.

American Author

Julian Fellowes

Although 'L.A. Confidential' is a long movie, there's never a moment when you think, 'I'm loving this... but when's dinner?' Each time I see it, I discover something I hadn't noticed before. It has a tremendous skill in developing all the subplots.

English Actor

Jennifer Egan

The way that Dickens structured his books has a form that we most readily recognize now from, say, the great T.V. series, like 'The Wire' or 'The Sopranos.' There's one central plot line, but then from that spin off all kinds of subplots.

Richard Flanagan

After writing a novel, what is there to say? If a novelist could say it in a maxim, they wouldn't need 120,000 words, several years and sundry characters, plots and subplots, and so on. I'd much rather listen always.

Australian Novelist

Neil Tennant

There's also a subplot about a guy who manages pop groups. Dave is a very ambitious boy, and he gets offered an audition but only wants to do it on his terms and conditions. He wants to maintain his integrity.

English Musician

Walter Kirn

You're able to do things in novels: introduce subplots, other characters, thematic layers and so on, in a way that you simply can't in a movie. A movie really has to choose its battles.

Bob Odenkirk

My experience - and it might be just the kind of comedy that I do, which is usually sketch comedy - is that there's a lot more texture and subplot in drama than in comedy.

American Actor

Darin Strauss

A subplot is a distinguishing characteristic of the novel; the short story, for example, does not need subplots.

American Writer

Jeffery Deaver

In suspense novels even subplots about relationships have to have conflict.

Subplots often add complexity and depth to the main story, making it more engaging.

Enhancing Drama

Subplots can provide background and development for supporting characters.

Character Development

Subplots may explore themes or ideas not covered in the main plot.

Thematic Depth

A subplot runs alongside the main plot, intersecting with it at key points.

Parallel Events

Subplots can vary the pace or tone, offering a break from the main action.

Variety and Pace

 In a subplot, Jia Rui falls in love with Xi-feng who tricks and humiliates him. Conflicting emotions of love and hate tear him apart, so a Taoist gives him a magic mirror that can cure him as long as he doesn't look at the front of it. But of course, he looks at the front of it.