“Fiction should be about moral dilemmas that are so bloody difficult that the author doesn't know the answer. What I hate in fiction is when the author knows better than the characters what they should do.” KnowsShouldCharacterHateDifficultAnswersFictionMoralI HateBloodyDilemmaMoral Dilemma Author:Pat Barker
“The computer has evolved into a partner, a tool, and an environment--not just in science fiction, but in the public consciousness as well. Computers are no longer malevolent iron brains that manufacture tyrannical and oppressive answers; they are not a way to think, they are a place from which to think. The computer is an environment in which answers can be sought, created, manipulated and developed.” ThinkingWayWellsAnswersBrainConsciousnessFictionEnvironmentComputerToolsScience FictionPartnersIron Author:David Gerrold
“You asked if I thought my fiction had changed anything in the culture and the answer is no. Sure, there's been some scandal, but people are scandalized all the time; it's a way of life for them. It doesn't mean a thing. If you ask if I want my fiction to change anything in the culture, the answer is still no. What I want is to possess my readers while they are reading my book if I can, to possess them in ways that other writers don't. Then let them return, just as they were, to a world where everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt, and control them.” PeopleIfsWorldWayWantMeanStillsI CanBookCultureReadingAsksAnswersFictionChangedReturnReaderScandal Book:Conversations with Philip Roth Source: Conversations with Philip Roth
“Why couldn't the world that concerns us- be a fiction? And if somebody asked, 'but to be a fiction there surely belongs an author?'- couldn't one answer simply: 'Why? Doesn't this "belongs" perhaps belong to the fiction, too?'” IfsWorldAnswersFictionConcern Book:Basic Writings of Nietzsche Source: Basic Writings of Nietzsche
“Why don't they make more science fiction movies? The answer to any question starting, Why don't they- is almost always, Money.” AnswersFictionScience FictionStartingAstronomyScience Fiction Movie Author:Robert A. Heinlein
“Paranormal fiction offers authors - and readers - the chance to answer the question, what if? All the different ways that question can be answered make for extremely entertaining reading.” IfsWayDifferentReadingChanceAnswersFictionReaderOffersDifferent WaysParanormalWhat IfEntertaining Author:Jeaniene Frost
“My books deliberately provide no answers or messages. Im drilled in the habit of objectivity and also aware that the steady drip of fiction has more power than facts to shape opinion, so I handle it with caution.” BookFactsAnswersFictionOpinionHabitShapesMessagesHandleSteadyCautionObjectivity Author:Karen Traviss
“In my opinion there are two basic questions that any writer tries to answer. "What is?" is the question non-fiction asks. "What if?" is the question fiction asks. That's the question I'm more interested in.” IfsTryingTwoAsksAnswersFictionOpinionWhat IfNon Fiction Author:Patrick Rothfuss
“Fiction, maybe art in general, is a tentative, uncertain enterprise; it's not science, it's an exploration, but you never find much in the way of answers.” WayArtAnswersFictionEnterpriseExplorationUncertain Author:Tim O'Brien
“The brightest minds in our field have been trying to find a definition of science fiction for these past seventy years. The short answer is, science fiction stories are given as possible, not necessarily here and now, but somewhere, sometime.” TryingYearsMindHas BeensStoriesPastGivenAnswersFictionFieldsScience FictionDefinitionsSeventiesHere And NowFiction Stories Book:Scatterbrain Source: Scatterbrain
“I love fiction. I like reading short stories. Cupcakes, pop songs, Polaroids, and short stories. They all raise and answer questions in a short space. I like Lorrie Moore. Amy Hempel. Tim O'Brien. Raymond Carver. All the heartbreakers.” HeartStoriesSongReadingSpaceAnswersFictionRaisesPopsShort StoryAmyPop SongCupcakesCarverPolaroidsHeartbreakerTim O Brien Author:Laurel Nakadate
“There's an imperative to make sure you distinguish fiction from the fact, because if the fact is doing the work, why did you do fiction? And once you raise the question of why - why do fiction? - then you have to answer it in your text as a kind of enactment of the answer.” IfsKindFactsAnswersFictionRaisesImperatives Author:Fred D'Aguiar
“I sometimes get asked if I think about film stuff while I'm writing fiction, and the answer is, of course not.” IfsThinkingWritingSometimesFilmCoursesStuffAnswersFictionWriting Fiction Author:Matthew Specktor
“I more seriously considered publishing it under a pseudonym than I considered publishing it as fiction. I think the decision to write it as nonfiction happened at the very outset of the process, because the overwhelming impetus for writing this book was to understand what the experience meant, and to override my own reductions and rationalizations, whatever story I had that was not true. It didn't sit well with me and I needed to answer that. That's sort of the reason I write everything.” ThinkingWritingWellsBookReasonStoriesProcessMy OwnDecisionAnswersFictionHappenedNeededOverwhelmingNonfictionPublishingReductionImpetusPseudonyms Author:Melissa Febos
“It is a work of psychogeography, albeit in a less explicit sense than Iain Sinclair's or Will Self's. It had to be fiction though, because I needed that freedom of including whatever belonged, and cutting out whatever didn't. The main fiction in it was matching Julius' generous and self-concealing character to New York's generous and self-concealing character. I think this also adds to my answer about New York's personality in the book.” ThinkingBookSelfCharacterAnswersFictionCuttingNew YorkPersonalityNeededAddIncludingGenerousExplicitMatchingJuliusConcealing Author:Teju Cole
“There are plenty of characters of color in fantasy and science fiction. But when you ask the question, "How many of them on-screen have rich, thought-out backgrounds and family elements to draw on?," you quickly find out that the answer is not very many.” CharacterAsksAnswersFictionFantasyRichColorElementsDrawsScience FictionScreensBackgroundsPlenty Author:Stephen H. Segal
“I don't think the function of writing, at least for me as a fiction writer, is to say to people, "Here's the answer." It's not an op-ed.” PeopleThinkingWritingAnswersFictionFunctionFiction Writers Author:Mohsin Hamid