Quotessence
Home / Topics / Fiction Quotes

Fiction Quotes

Browse 6707 quotes about Fiction.

Related topics

Science FictionWritingThinkingIfsPeopleStoriesWorldWayBookCharacterKnowsNovelFactsRealKindWantFiction WritersRealityReadingFantasyReaderLiteratureFirstsHumansWriting FictionFeelsTryingNon FictionYearsGenreShouldLyingMindBelieveFilmArtIdeasWellsFormNeedsNonfictionMenHas BeensDoeMeanLittlesSeemsTwoDifferentGivingLongMadeMayI CanImaginationHappensHistoricalHardLooksEndsSometimesNarrativeWrittenImportantInterestingScienceStrangerWholeFansUsePersonsTruth IsNovelistsShowsWantedFiction WritingStuffCertainDoneFeelingsStillsCrimeLanguageReasonWould BeChildrenPastProblemHorrorMysterySaidStranger Than FictionBigsEnoughMatterSubjectsHappenedHistorical FictionMightCoursesmore

Fiction Quotes

“I would say that most of my books are contemporary realistic fiction... a couple, maybe three, fall into the 'historic fiction' category. Science fiction is not a favorite genre of mine, though I have greatly enjoyed some of the work of Ursula LeGuin. I haven't read much science fiction so I don't know other sci-fi authors.”

KnowsBookFallThreeFictionHavensMinesCoupleScience FictionContemporaryEnjoyedGenreCategoriesRealisticSci FiHistoricRealistic Fiction
Author:Lois Lowry
Create image

“Here is one of the fundamental defects of American fiction--perhaps the one character that sets it off sharply from all other known kinds of contemporary fiction. It habitually exhibits, not a man of delicate organization in revolt against the inexplicable tragedy of existence, but a man of low sensibilities and elemental desires yielding himself gladly to his environment, and so achieving what, under a third-rate civilization, passes for success. To get on: this is the aim. To weigh and reflect, to doubt and rebel: this is the thing to be avoided.”

MenKindCharacterDesireLiteratureExistenceFictionKnownDoubtEnvironmentAchieveCivilizationLowsOrganizationThirdsTragedyAimFundamentalsRateContemporaryRebelDelicateSensibilityDefectsAvoidedRevoltExhibitsInexplicableContemporary FictionElementalsAmerican Literature
Book:H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series
Create image

“Southern writing is regional: it includes dialect, settings, and cultural traditions from that region. However the themes and story conflicts are universal. My challenge is to write regional fiction without falling into the trap of nostalgia. There are important issues facing the south that I believe should be raised in the stories to make them contemporary, believable, and relevant to today's readers.”

ShouldWritingBelieveImportantStoriesTodayFallI BelieveChallengesFictionIssuesReaderConflictTraditionUniversalSouthRaisedNostalgiaSettingContemporarySettingsThemeRegionsSouthernRelevantTrapsBelievableDialectImportant Issues
Author:Mary Alice Monroe
Create image

“If you want to be a fiction writer, you need to start reading like a fiction writer. To do so, you need to learn about craft so that the next time you pick up a contemporary short story, you're reading it not as an abstraction floating in formaldehyde, existing simply for the theorist's dull scalpel to saw on, but as a concrete thing constructed out of words and shaped by syntax, brought to life by a writer who made several thousand choices, some large, some small, before letting that imperfect beauty, the story, walk on its own two feet.”

IfsWantNeedsWritingMadeTwoStoriesChoicesReadingNextWalksFictionSawsFeetThousandPicksContemporaryCraftsDullShort StoryImperfectConcreteNext TimeFloatingAbstractionFiction WritersTheoristsSyntaxScalpels
Author:John McNally
Create image

“The problem with kitsch is that it is all too profound, manipulating deep libidinal and ideological forces, while true art knows how to remain at the surface, how to subtract it's subject from it's deepest context of historical reality. The same goes for contemporary art, where we often encounter brutal attempts to return to the Real, to remind the spectator or reader that he is perceiving a fiction, to awaken him from a sweet dream.”

KnowsArtRealProblemDreamRealityForceFictionKnow HowSubjectsSweetReturnReaderHistoricalProfoundSurfaceContemporaryEncountersBrutalSpectatorsIdeologicalKitschContemporary ArtSweet Dreams
Author:Slavoj Žižek
Create image

“Not a lot of contemporary fiction is written about brothers and sisters. Salinger's Franny and Zooey was an inspiration for me. In Franny and Zooey, the sister gets in trouble and the brother comes to help her out. But I wanted to make sure that in my novel the sister had more to do than lie around on a sofa muttering, which is what Franny does for two-thirds of Salinger's novel.”

DoeTwoHelpingInspirationWantedLyingFictionNovelWrittenTroubleBrotherThirdsContemporaryBrothers And SistersContemporary FictionSofasMutteringSalinger
Author:K. M. Soehnlein
Create image

“Journeys become very good metaphors. They always have the character put into circumstances that reveal him. If I had based my characters in New York and had them just sitting and thinking about life, it would be like what contemporary U.S. fiction is about. That is very heavy, literally, for me. It doesn't become mainstream enough because the pages don't turn themselves.”

IfsThinkingEnoughCharacterWould BeTurnsFictionJourneyNew YorkCircumstancesPagesSittingVery GoodMetaphorHeavyContemporaryMainstreamThinking About Life
Author:Karan Bajaj
Create image

“One of my favourite contemporary fiction writers is a Texan, Ben Fountain. His extraordinary novel, Billy Lynn's Long Half-Time Walk, all takes place within the half-time show at a Dallas Cowboys football game. No one has better summed up the American appetite for spectacle, the link between sports and politics, and the absolute madness of George W. Bush's Iraq War.”

LongWarShowsGamesSportsWalksHalfFictionNovelFootballMadnessAbsolutesExtraordinaryIraqContemporaryLinksAppetiteFavouriteCowboyFountainIraq WarFiction WritersDallasContemporary FictionFootball GameTexanHalf TimeDallas Cowboy
Author:Adam Hochschild
Create image

“As for whether genre considerations influence what I write, they don't at all, but I might sell more books if they did. The Night Journal is a hodge-podge of historical fiction, western, mystery, and contemporary domestic drama. It doesn't settle into a specific market, reviewers have a hard time describing it, and sometimes it gets classified weirdly in bookstores. But from a writer's standpoint, I like that it's hard to categorize.”

IfsWritingBookSometimesHardMightNightFictionMysteryInfluenceDramaSellsHistoricalWesternContemporaryGenreSettlingHard TimesConsiderationHistorical FictionJournalDescribingStandpointBookstoresReviewers
Author:Elizabeth Crook
Create image

“Ultimately, I want a peak experience in reading, and that is sometimes difficult to find in contemporary fiction. I'm not interested in books that are just clever and well executed; polish doesn't impress me, and I don't care about a merely capable sentence. Life is short; I want a confrontation with high art. I want soul.”

WantWellsArtBookSoulSometimesCareLife IsReadingDifficultFictionCapableDon't CareSentencesCleverContemporaryI Don't CareNot InterestedImpressLife Is ShortPolishConfrontationContemporary FictionHigh ArtPeak Experiences
Author:C.E. Morgan
Create image