Quotes About Fiction

And is it any wonder that the poor woman broke out into fairies when she had been deprived of any fiction in her youth?

Phryne read a detective story, frequently going back because she suddenly found herself reading a conversation between two characters she had not met before—

Teagan: How long has it been since you read a book that didn't havevampires in it? Abby: They write books with no vampires? Wait...the penguins made us read that Shakesrear guy, right? Teagan: Shakespeare.

It's like the difference between a well-constructed ball of string and a raggedy old pile of knots. With the ball of string you can get hold of one end, slowly unravel it and eventually you'll find out where it comes from. But with the pile of knots you pull on one and the whole things moves at once. . . . The austere simplicity of fiction versus the tangled wool of fact. Who said that? Einstein again? . . . Or did I?

On some level, most novelists write fiction to create order out of chaos. When you shape a fictional story, you can tie every loose end, fit the round pegs comfortably in circular holes. In a novel the author can create a world that makes sense.

I got to spend all of my time every day at work reading and editing papers about cutting-edge technical research and getting paid for it. Then I'd go home at night and turn what I learned into science fiction stories.

Because at bottom, I'm interested in fear, and in courage and cowardice and these are easier to get at through fiction, where you can enter people's heads.

how much of what he told me of his past was true and how much he made up to hold my interest.

Does Carthage even have forests? Did Virgil know for sure or was it just convenient for his story? Virgil was a professional liar. This would not be the only place where he pruned the truth until it was as artificial as an espaliered pear tree against a wall, forced into an expedient shape and bearing the demanded fruit.

Reality TV has in fact absolutely nothing to do with reality.

Of course it happened. If I wrote something that hadn't really happened, and I tried to sell it, I could go to jail. That's fraud.

This Is My America is a piece of fiction; if this story were true, there wouldn't be an immediate happy ending for the Beaumonts. They would continue to live in the same society, combating racial prejudice and inequality – with all the disadvantages and stains of post-prison survival and recovery.

Somehow, the notion that Professor Moriarty had parents - might have been a child - never sat right. A viper is a snake straight from the egg. I couldn't help but picture little Jamie as a balding midget in a sailor suit, spying Cook and the baker's boy rolling in the flour on the kitchen table through his toy telescope, and blackmailing them for extra buns.

How could a real person kill an imaginary animal?

The best fiction is true.

Clearly the opposing view that the writer precedes the work carries many dangers. By subordinating the work to the writer, one weakens the work's status as a product of society, overestimates the position of the writer and reinforces the notion that fiction is based on individualism.

In fiction, the language and the senses it evokes are important, whereas in technical writing, the content, and the information it conveys, are important.

Books had always been her solace. Novels gave her the space to be bold, brave, beautiful, if only in her imagination.

Books had always been her solace; novels gave her the space to be bold, brave, beautiful, if only in her own imagination.

She knew the difference between fact and fiction, but she couldn't abandon her love stories.

Life is nothing but a cock and bull story, and one of the best of its kind.

I don't think any good book is based on factual experience. Bad books are about things the writer already knew before he wrote them.

I am not interested in slice of life, what I want is a slice of the imagination.

He wrote up the cases of his own patients who believed themselves to be someone other than themselves. There were Virgin Marys, Christs and Gods, Marilyn Monroes and Elvis Presleys. Movie stars and even characters from literature took over the lives of Ambrose's patients. Jane Eyre sometimes screamed in an imaginary red room at Mandala.