Quotes About Fiction

Ford handed the book to Arthur. "What is it?" asked Arthur. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's a sort of electronic book. It tells you everything you need to know about anything. That's its job.

How can I tell, said the man, that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?" Zarniwoop stared at him. The steam began to rise from his sodden clothes. So you answer all questions like this? he said. The man answered quickly. I say what occurs to me to say when I think I hear people say things. More I cannot say.

The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife. Trin

How can I tell,' said the man, 'that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?

Cómo puedo saber que el pasado no es una ficción inventada para explicar la discrepancia entre mis sensaciones físicas inmediatas y mi estado de ánimo?

The President of the Galaxy

But that's incredible." "No, Zaphod. Just very very improbable." "Er, yeah.

But how are you, metalman?" said Ford. "Very depressed.

The three billion people weren't actually there, but they watched his every gesture through the eyes of a small robot tri-D camera which hovered obsequiously in the air nearby.

It's all devastatingly true — except the bits that are lies

who the heck is dorothy gale?

A false tale often betrays itself.

It had come about ex­act­ly in the way things hap­pened in books.

A woman who doesn't lie is a woman without imagination and without sympathy.

You have a tendency, Hastings, to prefer the least likely. That, no doubt, is from reading too many detective stories.

When you read the account of a murder - or, say, a fiction story based on murder - you usually begin with the murder itself. That's all wrong. The murder begins a long time beforehand. A murder is the culmination of a lot of different circumstances, all converging at a given moment at a given point. People are brought into it from different parts of the globe and for unforeseen reasons. [...] The murder itself is the end of the story. It's Zero Hour." He paused. "It's Zero Hour now.

fiction is founded on truth... unless things did happen, people couldn't think of them.

It's only in books people carry revolvers around as a matter of course.

When people ask "Do you put real people in your books?" the answer is that, for me, it is quite impossible to write about anyone I know, or have ever spoken to, or indeed have even heard about! For some reason, it kills them for me stone dead.

And, frankly, I don't like murder. It's the sort of thing that's fun to read about in the paper or to read yourself to sleep with in the way of a nice book. But the real thing isn't so good.

I don't know what the usual reactions are of a man who goes to propose marriage. In fiction his throat is dry and his collar feels too tight and he is in a pitiable state of nervousness.

Detective stories are mostly bunkum... But they amuse people... And they're useful sometimes.

I should have kept him to the end," said Mrs. Oliver. "In a book, I mean," she added apologetically. "Real life's a bit different," said Battle. "I know," said Mrs. Oliver. "Badly constructed.

People with nothing better to do and a bit weak in the top storey sit down and write 'em. They don't mean any harm! Just a kind of excitement.