Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Geoff Dyer

Quote by Geoff Dyer

“I think, about the distinction between fiction and nonfiction. Fiction is not really about anything: it is what it is. But nonfiction - and you see this particularly with something like the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction - nonfiction we define in relation to what it's about. So, Stalingrad by Antony Beevor. It's "about" Stalingrad. Or, here's a book by Claire Tomalin: it's "about" Charles Dickens.”

Quote by Geoff Dyer

Create image

Author

Geoff Dyer
Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer is a British writer known for his distinctive travel literature and essays. His works often use travel as a backdrop to explore themes of personal identity, cultural differences, and memory. more

You May Also Like

“I think I've had pretty good experiences for the most part with the people who have directed my screenplays. It's more that I wanted to see what it would be like if I didn't have to collaborate with anybody, to have a sense of purity of the thing from beginning to end. I liked doing it. It's really different from writing. Directing is a more pragmatic experience, where you have to deal with the restrictions of time and money that force you to make certain decisions you don't have to make when you're writing.”

PeopleThinkingWritingDifferentDecisionPurityPragmaticTime And Money
Author:Charlie Kaufman
Create image

“I think now that I've tried directing, I'm not interested in doing adaptations anymore. I could do an adaptation of someone else's work that I would write, but the idea of taking someone else's material entirely doesn't interest me. One of the things that I found really helpful, at least in my mind - and I've never discussed this with the actors or with the people I work with - is that being a neophyte in directing, I feel like I have a kind of authority simply because I'm the writer as well.”

PeopleThinkingWritingMindKindInterestAuthorityHelpfulNot InterestedAdaptation
Author:Charlie Kaufman
Create image

“There is a lot of management going on with directing. Maybe that was the biggest surprise-just the amount of tending that I had to do. The different personalities . . . It's not my way, and it's never been my function before as a writer. I tend to be a moody and somewhat withdrawn person, and I felt very clearly that I had to throw that away because that wasn't allowed here - there were other people who were going to be filling that role. Sometimes it became exhausting, especially around the eleventh hour of the day.”

PeopleDifferentSometimesHoursPersonalityManagementMy WayMoody
Author:Charlie Kaufman
Create image