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Fiction Quotes

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Fiction Quotes

“People really want to believe that there is no fiction. I think they find it much easier to imagine that novelists are writing memoirs, writing about their lives, because it's difficult to conceive that there's a great imaginary life in which you can participate.”

People Thinking Want Writing Believe Difficult Fiction Imagine Easier Memoir Novelists Imaginary Imagine That Imaginary Life

Author:Mark Leyner

“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.”

Knows Should Character Hate Difficult Answers Fiction Moral I Hate Bloody Dilemma Moral Dilemma

Author:Pat Barker

“I never did write a biography, and I don't exactly know how to set about it; you see I have to be accurate and keep to the facts, a most difficult thing for a writer of fiction.”

Knows Writing Facts Difficult Fiction Know How Accurate Biographies Difficult Things

Book:The Life of Charlotte Brontë

Source: The Life of Charlotte Brontë

“The most difficult part of writing a book is not devising a plot which will captivate the reader. It's not developing characters the reader will have strong feelings for or against. It is not finding a setting which will take the reader to a place he or she as never been. It is not the research, whether in fiction or non-fiction. The most difficult task facing a writer is to find the voice in which to tell the story.”

“Believe it or not, friendships are difficult to write in fiction. They can easily come across as forced, particularly if they involve too much explication and too many overt gestures of affection.”

Ifs Writing Believe Difficult Fiction Too Much Affection Gestures Not Friends

Author:Steven Erikson

“I would write light entertainment nonfiction pieces during the day, then come home and work on my fantasy fiction. It was very difficult to get out of the one mindset and into another one.”

Writing Home Light Difficult Fiction Fantasy Pieces Entertainment Mindset Coming Home Nonfiction

Author:Cassandra Clare

“It's always difficult to write honestly of one's deepest feelings, particularly without the protective veil of fiction. But the more difficult, the more rewarding if one succeeds. Rewarding not only to the work but to one's peace of mind.”

Ifs Writing Mind Feelings Difficult Fiction Succeed Honestly Peace Of Mind Veils Protective Deepest Feelings

Author:Alix Kates Shulman

“Attempting to define science fiction is an undertaking almost as difficult, though not so popular, as trying to define pornography... In both pornography and SF, the problem lies in knowing exactly where to draw the line.”

Trying Problem Lying Difficult Lines Fiction Knowing Draws Science Fiction Pornography Attempting Undertakings

Author:Arthur C. Clarke

“With 'Futurama,' I was just worried that somebody would beat us to it; it seemed so obvious that there should be an animated science fiction show set in the future. And one of the reasons why it's not, I learned, is that it's really, really difficult.”

Should Reason Shows Difficult Fiction Beats Science Fiction Obvious Worried Reason Why Animated

Author:Matt Groening

“Usually at the core of fiction that has some element of the absurd there tends to be an examination of some societal ills that we should talk about more than we do. And it's funny, of course, so we have that release valve with absurdism. It offers us a safe way to explore difficult subject matter.”

Way Should Matter Courses Difficult Fiction Subjects Offers Safe Elements Core Absurd Release Examination Subject Matter Valve Difficult Subjects

Author:Laurie Foos

“The easiest songs to write are pure fiction. There is no limit to how you can tell the story. I find it difficult when I'm replaying an event through a song.”

Writing Stories Song Difficult Fiction Events Pure Limits

Author:Jason Mraz

“I do write fiction, and I find it more difficult, but also more liberating. On the one hand, you can make up the story, but you have to make up the story.”

Writing Stories Hands Difficult Fiction Liberating

Author:Emily Susan Rapp

“Of course, it's always difficult to disentangle fact from fiction in relation to, e.g., the singularity project. Many scientists I know are dismissive of transhumanist claims, BUT the last 100 years has surely taught us never to underestimate the pace and scope of scientific progress. However, even if much of this turns out to be science-fiction, it also reveals a way of thinking about human life that I find deeply troubling.”

“It would be difficult for a writer of realism to avoid suggesting a political/moral perspective in his or her fiction. "Politics" per se is absent from my writing but there is usually a moral (if ironic) compass.”

Ifs Writing Would Be Political Difficult Fiction Moral Perspective Ironic Realism Compass Absent Suggesting

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“I think that is one of the first things that I got clear in my mind when I began to play around with fiction, that I had to find a language and it was not in existance at the time. You have put it very well - it wasn't to be taken for granted. You had to go on and search until you found a way through the conversation of English and Igbo. The two languages stuck into each other and tried to find a way to express through one, the medium of the thoughts. That's a very exciting thing to do, a very difficult thing to do.”

“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.”