Best Dialogue Writers

State why and give an example if possible.

Plato.

Hemingway.
1. Verisimilitude.
2. Subtle word play.
3. No bullshit.
4. Uses line breaks/formatting to distort time.

Ex: Hills Like White Elephants.

Salinger, no doubt about it

Not gonna dig for examples, sorry

>R.A Lafferty
"Just how often do you have to make a total fool of yourself, Foley?" Tankersley asked him sharply. Tankersley was a kind man, but he had a voice like a whip.
"An enterprising reporter should do it at least once a week, sir, or he isn't covering the ground," Fred Foley said seriously.
"You do it oftener," said Tankersley. "Why is your nose bleeding, Foley?''
"I do it oftener because I'm more enterprising than your other reporters. Oh, my nose bleeds every time I
get caught a good one there."

>Jack Vance
"If you will notice," said Cugel, "Bunderwal shows the drooping nostrils which indicate an infallible tendency toward sea-sickness."
"Cugel is a man of discernment!" declared Bunderwal. "I would rate him an applicant of fair to good quality, and I urge you to ignore his long spatulate fingers which I last noticed on Larkin the baby-stealer. There is a significant difference between the two: Larkin has been hanged and Cugel has not been hanged."

Hemingway, huh? Well, since his strongest point clearly isn't his prose, perhaps that led to me overlooking his dialogue.

He was a fraud.

>Well, since his strongest point clearly isn't his prose
Brainlet who can only enjoy long sentences detected

Dostoevsky is by far the best dialogue writer that I've come across. All of his characters come to life, and mostly through dialogue since he was writing drama.

I'm not convinced that Jack Vance example is any good.
No one talks like that.

Where do you feel his dialogue is represented best?

It's pretty funny though (not that poster)

Not the same user but Crime and Punsihment is a good place to begin with.

It's hard to say. His four major novels all feel comparable with each other. The safe answer is The Brothers Karamazov, but I honestly think any of them will do just fine. I have a little Word file for interesting and impressive quotes I come across, and I have by far more Dostoevsky than anyone else. Others don't even come close. Here's one I saved from TBK:

“By the way, a Bulgarian I met lately in Moscow,” Ivan went on, seeming not to hear his brother's words, “told me about the crimes committed by Turks and Circassians in all parts of Bulgaria through fear of a general rising of the Slavs. They burn villages, murder, outrage women and children, they nail their prisoners by the ears to the fences, leave them so till morning, and in the morning they hang them—all sorts of things you can't imagine. People talk sometimes of bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel. The tiger only tears and gnaws, that's all he can do. He would never think of nailing people by the ears, even if he were able to do it. These Turks took a pleasure in torturing children, too; cutting the unborn child from the mother's womb, and tossing babies up in the air and catching them on the points of their bayonets before their mothers' eyes. Doing it before the mothers' eyes was what gave zest to the amusement. Here is another scene that I thought very interesting. Imagine a trembling mother with her baby in her arms, a circle of invading Turks around her. They've planned a diversion: they pet the baby, laugh to make it laugh. They succeed, the baby laughs. At that moment a Turk points a pistol four inches from the baby's face. The baby laughs with glee, holds out its little hands to the pistol, and he pulls the trigger in the baby's face and blows out its brains. Artistic, wasn't it? By the way, Turks are particularly fond of sweet things, they say.”

OP said best, not most realistic. Vance's Dying Earth characters are all far more eloquent than they have any business being but it's a very good way to make the whole world seem wonderfully exotic. (that poster)

>Well... that takes the biscuit!
not Joyce..

It just doesn't feel dynamic. It's smart and wordy but so is the Lafferty passage. The difference is that Lafferty gives breaks and details that don't feel like someone is giving you a pre-written speech.

>no Gaddis
Okay then.

That short story inspired me to write something similar since I was told I'm good with dialog. Which is really besides the point that, yes, Hemingway wrote some great dialog.

joyce dialouge is great

JR is the only book of his I've read and the dialogue in that one felt so realistic that I've noticed that literature and even television dialogue seems obviously scripted. There are a few exceptions tho, Tarantino's dialogue is interesting, but other than that I can't think of anything that actually made me think 'Wow this is some realistic dialogue'

/thread

fpbp

realistic dialogue isn't really something to shoot for. unless you wanted a bunch of ums and errs, awkward pauses, digressions and smalltalk about the weather.

>Strawman
>"Well, I guess you're right, Socrates"
>Strawman
>"One cannot disagree with what you just said, Socrates"
>etc

Elmore Leonard

>Professional 4 day pass

Those are hard to get, and heres one for a cosplayer? Nerds are the worst.

She's a porn star, how did you think she got that?

personality, ace.

Bump

Weird to think she's like nearing 30 now.

Women spoil so quickly. She was gorgeous and youthful so Veeky Forums spread her pictures around, willingly as a group, but now she's old so we'll never see her again. Except in her youthful form, forever captured in those pics, the only thing that ever mattered to anyone outside her immediate family.

OP here. Is it strange that, even though I know you're referring to the picture I posted, I have no idea who that picture is of and assumed it was of a random normie girl until I read your comment?

Perhaps, but now I must ask, who is it?

how do we best rid ourselves of the newfriend menace?

this is the correct answer

Lol

Raymond Carver

fuck you OP you're not gonna make me fall for the women meme

Cormac McCarthy

hehe

haha

ITT: virgins

Raymond Chandler

these two are good choices but it still doesn't top the king

This is great.

I'll put forth also Tao Lin's top redeeming quality is his dialog.

gross. imagine grabbing a tit and having all that toner makeup getting all over your fingers

SALINGER
A
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I
N
G
E
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>Tankersley asked him sharply
Into the trash it goes

>falling for the "shit formatting and known author, so it must be good" meme

really makes u think :^) so deep. truly inspiring

joyce.
>examples
read ulysses. penelope chapter have the greatest 50 pages I have ever read in my life

fucking Veeky Forums

>implying Hemmingway's dialogue isn't GOAT
read The Sun Also Rises again

>just one stuffed dog

never explain stuff like what wrote

Bukowski

the rich man´s hemingway

>Bukowski

>"kiss me, silverhair"

"no"

- No but you don't get it Bast didn't you read all the literture I sent you boy here I am thinking we can help each other out and you didn't even read all the literture I sent you...No but that's the point see you don't even have to read the book like you just go on this here site called Veeky Forums and on Veeky Forums they have these neat things called boards and one of them is called lit and that's where you talk about the... No but that's the thing Bast you don't even have to read the book Bast that's the best part... No but holy why would you read the book when you can just pretend that you read it nobody can tell that's what's so... No but wait wait a second... No but Bast you don't even have to read it I told you! you go to this here board called lit and you do this thing called shitposting... No but holy shit Bast that's what it's called I'm not the one who invented it! what you do is like you say something about the book like whatever you want it doesn't even have to make sense and then what happens is other people read your post...No but they're nobody it doesn't matter who they are you never actually see them or anything they're just like us they're posting on this here Veeky Forums site and they didn't read the book either see... That's just how it works nobody actually reads the books they just talk about them and write these here things called bait and what happens is if your bait is good then you get all these neat things called yous ...what? ...yeah yous like you but with an s... no not you like you Bast like you is what's written on the board it's this neat thing called a you that's just what it's called...and what you do is that the more yous you get the better you are... I don't know what you do with all the yous you just want to get as many of them as possible that's what you do! and if you want even more yous you can add pictures like this here cartoon frog called Pepper or Peppy or something...Didn't you get the pictures I sent you? Holy shit Bast I have to do everything myself here I am trying to help you out so that you have time to work on your music I mean you're always talking about all the music you have to work on so I thought maybe we can help each other out but you don't even... no I know that but... what?... Holy shit Bast I don't know why there's a frog that's just how it is they're these things called memes you just post them over and over again... I don't know why holy shit Bast you just use these here memes to get as many yous as you can... Wait Bast... Fine you don't have to post the frog you can just post what you want but... what?...No but it doesn't matter if you don't know what to post you just look at whatever everyone else is posting and you just post the same thing that's what's so neat about the whole thing you just look at everyone else see Bast and then you just do what they're doing and when you get a you what you do is you give a you to the person who gave you a... Bast?... hey Bast?

Wumen

Will Self always has really authentic dialogue.

I read somewhere that he gets his dialogue by stealing it from real people.
So when he needed to write a cabby The Book of Dave he just sat in a cafe next to a black cab dispatch office and wrote down what people said.

Tell me who the bitch is then kys. Being a shut-in isn't virtuous.

good grief thats an ugly jew

he's just British

Any examples?

Random section I pointed my finger at in F&Z

"He was in France last summer, for your information," Lane stated. "I know what you mean," he added quickly, "but you're being goddam un-"
"All right," Franny said wearily. "France." She took a cigarette out of the pack on the table. "It isn't just Wally. It could be a girl, for goodness' sake. I mean if he were a girl-somebody in my dorm, for example-he'd have been painting scenery [191] in some stock company all summer. Or bicycled through Wales. Or taken an apartment in New York and worked for a magazine or an advertising company. It's everybody, I mean. Everything everybody does is so-I don't know-not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and -sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much as everybody else, only in a different way." She stopped. She shook her head briefly, her face quite white, and for just a fractional moment she felt her forehead with her hand-less, it seemed, to find out whether she was perspiring than to check to see, as if she were her own parent, whether she had a fever. "I feel so funny," she said. "I think I'm going crazy. Maybe I'm already crazy."
Lane was looking at her with genuine concern-more concern than curiosity. "You're pale as hell. You're really pale-you know that?" he asked.
Franny shook her head. "I'm fine. I'll be fine in a minute." She looked up as the waiter came forward with their orders. "Oh, your snails look beautiful." She had just brought her cigarette to her lips, but it had gone out. "What'd you do with the matches?" she asked.
Lane gave her a light when the waiter had gone. "You smoke too much," he said. He picked up the small fork beside his plate of snails, but looked at Franny again before he used it. "I'm worried about you. I'm serious. What the hell's happened to you in the last couple of weeks?"
Franny looked at him, then simultaneously shrugged and shook her head. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing," she said. "Eat. Eat them snails. They're terrible if they're cold."
"You eat."
Franny nodded and looked down at her chicken sandwich. She felt a faint wave of nausea, and looked up immediately and dragged on her cigarette.
"How's the play?" Lane asked, attending to his snails.
"I don't know. I'm not in it. I quit."
"You quit?" Lane looked up. "I thought you were so mad about the part. What happened? They give it to somebody else?" [192]
"No, they did not. It was all mine. That's nasty. Oh, that's nasty."
"Well, what happened? You didn't quit the whole department, did you?"
Franny nodded, and took a sip of her milk.

I'd say Salinger, Hemingway, Carver, and Joyce are the best there are, depending on what you want from dialogue.

have you never read White Nights?
the dialogue is fucking terrible

omg boobies are awesome

Gracias

Dude how stupid are you

So you define others' stupidity based on how familiar they are with meme thots? Sounds pretty stupid.

Now someone tell me who this bitch is.

I'll admit that my jewdar is honed to the max, so it's an easy call for me to make, but that guy (Self (he any good btw?)) is practically an Anglo archetype.

i hate writing 'he said' 'he questioned' 'he bibbidy bopped'
whats the lit approved method of dumping this trash?

Didn't they ever teach you, user?

>"Blah blah blah," said Character A
>"Blah blah blah blah," said Character B
>"Blah."
>"Blah?"
>"Blah. Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah."
>"Blah blah blah blah blah blah!"
>"Blah blah blah, blah."

And so on

Elmore Leonard......maybe.

i didnt go to school.
there's no worry of reader confusion? how long can it go for?

Actions that aren't speech can be used to convey which character is speaking. Also makes for better prose.

>Charles was shaking his head. "Watch what you say. Smith would slug you for that."

>"Officer smith?" Micah's eyes widened. He found it hard to imagine the old man slugging anyone.

>"Nah, his nephew," said Isaac.

>"Actually, forget Smith," Charles continued, "Kelly would kill you herself."

>"Please, she wouldn't hurt a fly," scoffed Isaac. "You know she was on the eastern border for a year but didn't kill a single person? All this tough talk from her is completely empty."

>Micah stared at him. "Was she in an auxiliary unit?"

>"Nah, that's the thing. She was out on the frontlines, same as everyone else, but her squad says she never killed a soul."

>Amanda made a derisive noise. "Weakling."

Overdone here as an example, but it works. And don't worry about readers getting confused if you just put dialogue only, they aren't retarded. There's context and the fact that most dialogue goes back and forth so they can just assume every other line is the same dude replying to whoever.

How do people feel about non-'he said, she said,' dialogue markers? I read a Pynchon book a while back and noticed he frequently used words other than 'said.'

He...
-pleaded
-seethed
-ordered

Etc.

Just curious what people think since a lot will advise writers to only use 'said.' Does that actually bother anyone?

I liked Milton's dialogue in Paradise Lost

read Mamet

Yeah, but he likes to use the most obscure words possible. It's like he's challenging you to give up.

Book of Dave is excellent, it's split between two timelines. The first is about a mentally ill cabbie called Dave who writes a deluded manifesto on why women are evil after he loses custody of his son. The second part is a post-apocalyptic iron-age civilisation that has found his manifesto and built a religion/ civilisation around it.

The post-apocalyptic part is basically just an admitted rip-off of Russell Hobarn's Riddley Walker, so it's written in a made-up language based on London cockney. As I Londoner I picked it up pretty quickly, but it will probably be a lot harder for a non-Brit.

Also Great Apes is really good, and a bit easier to get into.

If you are interested, Dostoevsky is referencing the suppression of the April Uprising in 1876.

I can't really explain it but when I read Salinger's dialogue it really doesn't feel like a chore. Everything flows so nicely. How does he accomplish that?

Yes, Bukowski!

I usually spend most of my time on /co/ and it's funny how many of you like Salinger's dialogue for attempting to be realistic and using repetition a lot yet on /co/ everyone hates Brian Michael Bendis' dialogue for doing the exact same thing in his comics.

Jane Austen

I've never read Joyce (intimidated desu) but I really liked this. Is there a reason you chose this bit? What does it mean?

Nah man thats a full blooded Anglo.

>Is there a reason you chose this bit?
It's just stuck in my mind for some reason.
>What does it mean?
Bloom's Jewish so they're taunting him about whether is really Irish. The novel is set while Ireland was still fighting for independence so I guess the nature of nationality was also a hot topic in general.