“The ideal form for a poem, essay, or fiction, is that which the ideal writer would evolve spontaneously. One in whom the powers of expression fully responded to the state of feeling, would unconsciously use that variety in the mode of presenting his thoughts, which Art demands.” ArtStatesUseFeelingsFormFictionExpressionDemandIdealsVarietyEvolveEssaysPresenting Book:Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative Source: Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative
“When I write a book I write the best that I can and so much of that for me is following the book's demands, the subject's requirements - I love books, I always have. They have always been one of the places where I have felt very happy in the world. When I was younger, I loved to read genre fiction - I loved the magic-carpet ride of story! Now I need other things - I need the beautiful particular and strange language and form which brings a writer's book to life in me and speaks to my intellect, and, dare I say it, to my soul.” WorldNeedsWritingI CanBookSoulStoriesBeautifulFormSpeakLanguageFeltFictionMagicSubjectsParticularStrangeDemandFollowingDareIntellectMy SoulGenreRequirementsVery HappyCarpet Author:Micheline Aharonian Marcom
“Some trans people thought that in claiming that gender is performative that I was saying that it is all a fiction, and that a person's felt sense of gender was therefore "unreal." That was never my intention. I sought to expand our sense of what gender realities could be. But I think I needed to pay more attention to what people feel, how the primary experience of the body is registered, and the quite urgent and legitimate demand to have those aspects of sex recognized and supported.” PeopleThinkingFeelsPersonsBodyRealitySexFeltPayAttentionFictionNeededDemandAspectIntentionGenderPrimariesUrgentUnrealTrans Author:Judith Butler
“I think that fiction has this special responsibility or this special ability to help people to empathize, to demand of people that they understand other individuals and other people's experiences.” PeopleThinkingHelpingIndividualAbilityFictionResponsibilitySpecialDemand Author:Ben H. Winters
“I'm definitely excited by big ideas, both in what I write and what I read. Most days, reality is so mind-numbingly dull that I don't understand why someone would write strictly realistic stories, given the almost limitless freedom fiction provides. I don't see the point of making believe if you're not going to actually make believe: hang your ass out in the wind, push at every boundary, make almost unreasonable demands on your reader's willingness to suspend disbelief. This is dangerous, and prone to failure, but that's part of what makes it fun.” IfsWritingMindBelieveIdeasStoriesBigsRealityGivenFunFictionDangerousWindReaderDemandExcitedBoundariesAssDullWillingnessRealisticLimitlessDisbeliefUnreasonableMake BelieveBig Ideas Author:Ron Currie Jr.