Quotes About Fiction

You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth

It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

Australian History: .... does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies.

I have replaced his tin life with a silver-gilt fiction

A well put together unreality is pretty hard to beat.

I don't know anything that mars a good literature so completely as too much truth. Facts contain a great deal of poetry, but you can't use too many of them without damaging your literature.

Mark Twain. The truth should never be permitted to stand in the way of a good story.

Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.

Manners! he said. Why, it is merely the truth, and truth is good manners; manners are a fiction. The castle is done. Do you like it?

The reason why truth is so much stranger than fiction is that there is no requirement for it to be consistent.

Each time in fiction or in history I meet a well-defined personality I am personally interested in him, for we know each other already, because we met on the river.

Now, then, that is the tale. Some of it is true.

In all ages of the world this eminently plausible fiction has lured the obtuse infant to financial ruin and disaster.

I could see he meant no offense, but in my thoughts I set it down as not very good manners. Manners! he said. Why, it is merely the truth, and truth is good manners; manners are a fiction.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story

T[he rules of writing] require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.

The difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to make sense.

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't." ? Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

Cuando se escriben novelas sobre adultos, uno sabe donde tiene que parar: esto es, en la boda. Pero cuando se escribe una novela sobre jóvenes, hay que parar donde mejor se pueda.

They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the Deerslayer tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.

It's no wonder truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

Le romancier qui écrit une histoire d'adulte sait exactement où et comment s'arrêter, c'est le plus souvent par un mariage. Quand il s'agit d'un enfant, il s'arrête où il peut.

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.

By and by Tom's reading and dreaming about princely life wrought such a strong effect upon him that he began to act the prince, unconsciously.