“If you're writing fiction, you're dealing with characters who, themselves, will have heartfelt sentiments but who, themselves, live in this culture right now and thus face all the impediments to sort of dealing with those parts of their lives that, you know, that we did. So it would be not only silly but unrealistic to have a character saying that kind of stuff.” IfsKnowsWritingKindCharacterWould BeFacesCultureStuffFictionRight NowSillySentimentsHeartfeltWriting FictionImpediments Author:David Foster Wallace
“There's two kinds of evil that horror fiction always deals with. One kind is the sort of evil that comes from inside people, like in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The other kind of evil is predestined evil. It falls on you like a stroke of lightning. That's the scary stuff, but, in a way, it's the stuff you don't have to worry about. I gotta worry whether or not I'm getting cavities. I gotta worry about whether cigarettes are giving me cancer. Those are things I can change. Don't give me lightning out of a clear sky. If that hits me I just say, "That's probably the way God meant it to be."” PeopleIfsWayGivingKindI CanTwoFallEvilStuffDealsFictionWorryClearSkyHorrorGive MeCancerScaryLightningCigaretteDrsStrokesPredestinedHydeJekyllClear SkiesMr HydeScary Stuff Author:Stephen King
“I'd be surprised if non-fiction writers hate to be interviewed. We all hate them, because there's really nothing to say except "Read the book." Right? At least with non-fiction, you can kind of convey some information, and people can decide for themselves whether they want more of that kind of information. But with a novel, what am I going to do?” PeopleIfsWantKindBookHateFictionNovelInformationNon FictionFiction Writers Author:Jonathan Franzen
“Directing is a big responsibility to take on. I think I'm only good at doing things I know very well. I don't direct movies because I get offered the new vampire movie or science fiction movie. I don't get offered those, anyway, but if I did, I would just tell 'em, "Look, I'm the wrong guy." I only do things about people and situations, and I do the ones that I think I'm the best guy for the job on, which is usually something I generate myself.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWellsLooksBigsJobsGuyFictionResponsibilitySituationDirectScience FictionVampireEmsVampire MovieScience Fiction MovieBig ResponsibilityWrong Guy Author:Billy Bob Thornton
“The literature now is so opaque to the average person that you couldn't take a science-fiction short story that's published now and turn it into a movie. There'd be way too much ground work you'd have to lay. It's OK to have detail and density, but if you rely on being a lifelong science-fiction fan to understand what the story is about, then it's not going to translate to a broader audience.” IfsWayPersonsStoriesTurnsLiteratureFictionAudienceToo MuchFansScience FictionLaysAverageDetailsRelyShort StoryTranslateLifelongAverage PersonDensityOpaque Author:James Cameron
“My advice is to write about what you are interested in. If you read science fiction and fantasy, then write in that genre. If you read romance novels, then try writing one.” IfsWritingTryingRomanceFictionFantasyNovelAdviceScience FictionGenreRomance NovelScience Fiction And Fantasy Author:Michael Scott
“You can lose a reader in a blink of an eye. If a person is an engineer or chemist or an anthropologist or whatever, you spoil the whole book for that person if there's obviously ignorance here. What's wrong with so much science fiction is that the science is so lousy that it isn't worth paying attention to.” IfsPersonsBookWholeEyeLosesAttentionFictionIgnoranceReaderScience FictionPay AttentionEngineersSpoilBlinkChemistAnthropologistsBlink Of An Eye Author:Robert Caro
“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
“If my setting is new to a reader, or the concerns of the novel are new, I hope they will learn something about the world. I would like to say that they can trust that what they do learn in the novel will be accurate, because I pay a lot of attention to facts. I do a lot of research to make sure that I'm not giving them, you know, blue moons of Jupiter. It's not science fiction.” IfsKnowsWorldGivingFactsPayAttentionFictionNovelReaderMoonResearchConcernBlueScience FictionSettingSettingsAccurateJupiterBlue Moon Author:Barbara Kingsolver
“I think that when people read fiction, they're really reading for wisdom. I am. That's what most of us really love. If we read a novel that rocks our world, it's because there's something in it that we didn't know already. Not just information but really wisdom - sort of what to do with our information. And wisdom comes from experience.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWorldReadingFictionNovelRocksInformationOur World Author:Barbara Kingsolver
“If we're talking about the science fiction or action genres, I've always tried when I could to do them in a way that's not just cookie-cutter - that they bring something fresh or original to it, have some kind of ideas to it. I've been fortunate, in some sense, to do those kinds of movies that are unique.” IfsWayKindIdeasActionFictionTalkingUniqueOriginalsScience FictionGenreFortunateCookiesCuttersCookie Cutters Author:Keanu Reeves
“I still think that of all the people doing top fiction today, John D. MacDonald is the best.He was my model as a kid. If there are people out there that want to write, all you need to do is read 20 of his stories to get an idea what it takes to make a story kick over.” PeopleIfsThinkingWantNeedsWritingStillsIdeasStoriesKidsTodayFictionModelsKicks Author:Stephen King
“To solve the drug problem, we have to start at the root - first grade. If a boy has all the toys in his head that reading can give him, and you hook him into science fiction, then you've got the future secured.” IfsGivingFirstsProblemReadingFictionBoysDrugRootsScience FictionSolveGradesToysHookSecured Author:Ray Bradbury
“History is not going to look kindly on us if we just keep our head in the sand on armed autonomous robotics issue because it sounds too science fiction.” IfsLooksSoundFictionIssuesScience FictionSandRoboticsAutonomous Author:Peter Singer
“We need to find another way or another shape or an allegory or something that tells us more. Even Vagabond - it was a fiction but it was really a documentary. I mean, it has the texture of documentary. Even if I made up every line, it has the texture of being true.” IfsWayNeedsMeanMadeLinesFictionShapesBeing TrueDocumentariesAnother WayTextureAllegoryVagabonds Author:Agnes Varda
“It's just the garbage in/garbage out trick. If you're not taking any fiction in, good or bad, then how can you be spitting any back out (good or bad)? I can't even imagine trying to write without reading. Really, I can hardly write a novel at all if I'm not reading just book after book.” IfsWritingTryingI CanBookReadingFictionNovelImagineTricksGarbage Author:Stephen Graham Jones
“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.” IfsWritingMindFeelingsDifficultFictionSucceedHonestlyPeace Of MindVeilsProtectiveDeepest Feelings Author:Alix Kates Shulman
“If someone doesn't like your fiction, it's really insulting.” IfsFictionLike YouInsulting Author:Ethan Canin
“You can tell within a sentence if something is fiction or non-fiction. You can tell in the artifice of the language or the care of the construction the difference between art and life.” IfsArtCareLanguageDifferencesFictionSentencesConstructionNon FictionArtificeArt And Life Author:Ethan Canin
“Many years ago I had two small children, and I wanted to be able to be home when they got home from school. And I didn't like the direction journalism was taking. I thought if I could write books, I could work at home and have the best of both worlds. I wrote my first mystery while still working full time, and it didn't sell, but the next one did sell, so I quit my job for the world of fiction. Scary, but I've never regretted it for a single day.” IfsWorldWritingYearsFirstsChildrenStillsTwoBookHomeAbleWantedSchoolJobsNextFictionMysteryYears AgoSellsScaryQuittingJournalismIf I CouldI QuitThe Next OneSmall ChildNever RegretBest Of Both Worlds Author:Mary Kay Andrews
“If you start looking at movies on a moral level - "I don't like that, that hurts, that's mean, that's bad" - then I don't even want to talk to you. Or like, someone that says "I don't like science-fiction movies," or "I don't want to sit through a Western," or "I don't like violence in movies," then I completely tune out.” IfsWantMeanHurtLevelsFictionMoralViolenceScience FictionWesternTunesScience Fiction MovieViolence In Movies Author:Bret Easton Ellis
“I love science fiction but I don't like fantastic [cinema]. For example, if you have a magical ring and you can explode the world with it. What are we talking about? You know, it's not interesting. I don't like Lord of the Rings. Even Star Wars, for me, I don't understand this kind of story. But Alien, because the rules of the game are very precise, it could happen. I love science fiction. I have an idea about robots in the future.” IfsKnowsWorldKindIdeasWarStoriesHappensGamesStarsInterestingFictionTalkingLordExampleScience FictionRingsAliensFantasticCinemaPreciseRobotsRules Of The GameScience Love Author:Jean-Pierre Jeunet
“Being a fan of science fiction, I collect a lot of science fiction art work and so if you go to my house there's like a library and you just geek out on science fiction material. A lot of the colony worlds specifically are built as a melting pot of different societies, because the world is at a point where there are only two zones that are left inhabitable.” IfsWorldArtTwoDifferentHouseLeftFictionFansMaterialsBuiltScience FictionLibraryZonePotGeekMeltingColonyMelting Pot Author:Len Wiseman
“There’s only one subject for fiction or poetry or even a joke: how it is. In all the arts, the payoff is always the same: recognition. If it works, you say that’s real, that’s truth, that’s life, that’s the way things are. ‘There it is.’” IfsWayArtRealFictionSubjectsJokesRecognitionPayoff Author:Robert Stone
“I have always known that writing fiction had little effect on the world; that if it did, young men would not have gone to war after The Iliad.” IfsMenWorldWritingLittlesWarYoungFictionKnownGoneEffectsYoung ManWriting FictionIliad Book:Broken Vessels: Essays Source: Broken Vessels: Essays
“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
“The movies have never been a big deal to me. The movies are the movies. They just make them. If they're good, that's terrific. If they're not, they're not. But I see them as a lesser medium than fiction, than literature, and a more ephemeral medium.” IfsBigsLiteratureDealsFictionMediumsTerrificBig DealEphemeral Author:Stephen King
“As soon as you start doing that - changing things - it seems self-evident to me that you've entered the world of make-believe. If you pretend that it's true, and use your own name, you are misleading people. Fiction is looser and wilder and sometimes in the end more self-revealing, anyway.” PeopleIfsWorldBelieveEndsSelfSometimesUseSeemsNamesFictionEvidentRevealingMisleadMake BelieveWilder Author:Nicholson Baker
“Speech recognition is utterly crap for writing fiction. If you try reading a novel aloud you'll soon figure out why - written prose style is utterly unlike the spoken word.” IfsWritingTryingReadingFictionNovelWrittenStyleFiguresSpeechRecognitionProseCrapWriting FictionSpoken Word Author:Charles Stross
“We see films all the time, whether they have access to all kinds of intellectual property or artifacts, and the one thing that they don't get is story. So I think whether you're talking about a biopic or an action film or a science-fiction film that has all the CGI in the world, if you're not trying to connect with an audience, it doesn't really matter.” IfsThinkingWorldTryingKindMatterStoriesActionFilmFictionTalkingAudienceOne ThingIntellectualScience FictionPropertyAccessAll KindsIntellectual PropertyArtifactsAction FilmsCgi Author:John Ridley
“It's said that if two documentary filmmakers meet they talk about the world, if two fiction filmmakers meet they talk about the million that they don't have to make their film.” IfsWorldSaidTwoFilmFictionMillionsFilmmakerDocumentaries Author:Pirjo Honkasalo
“I think that if you use something from you life in fiction, it metamorphosizes into something strange and different. Afterward it is hard to tell what actually was part of your life and what is part of the story of the fictional character.” IfsThinkingDifferentHardCharacterStoriesUseFictionStrangeFictional Character Author:Marge Piercy
“Another strand of my writing is the importance of the idea. If you think about fiction writing as a spectrum, where at one end of the spectrum in the infrared, are the story tellers, and the people for whom creation of wonderful characters and telling a good story is the most important thing.” PeopleIfsThinkingWritingImportantIdeasEndsCharacterStoriesFictionWonderfulCreationImportanceImportant ThingsSpectrumGood StoryFiction WritingStrandsInfrared Author:Alan Lightman
“We don't really know how technology will affect narrative. That's the question. See, people used to say that the novel is going to die, but they would never say that movies will die with it, when in fact all forms depend on the narrative. I think if one of them fails, the others are going to fail as well. Maybe this will happen to both forms, and maybe movies will take a totally different direction with fiction.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWellsDifferentFactsHappensFormUsedDiesFictionTechnologyNovelKnow HowFailingDependsNarrativeDifferent Directions Author:Don DeLillo
“Just as art brings you to another place, so does religion - and to ask questions of factuality tends to reduce both. If you say you were inspired by a novel, that implies that your book is a work of fiction.” IfsDoeArtBookAsksFictionNovelInspired Author:Yann Martel
“I meet a number of people as a writer of fiction who say "Oh, I don't read much fiction," as if the history of the United States, just as an example, isn't an exercise in storytelling and myth-making.” PeopleIfsStatesUnitedNumbersFictionUnited StatesExampleExerciseMythStorytelling Author:Yann Martel
“Characters more or less present themselves to me. I don't know their origins. I think if I did, if I seemed to myself to fabricate them, I could not induce suspension of disbelief in myself in the way writing fiction requires.” IfsThinkingKnowsWayWritingCharacterFictionDisbeliefWriting FictionSuspensionFabricateSuspension Of Disbelief Author:Marilynne Robinson
“Fiction must compete with first-rate reporting. If you cannot write a story that is equal to a factual account of battle in the streets or demonstrations, then you can't write a story.” IfsWritingFirstsStoriesFictionStreetsBattleEqualAccountsRateDemonstrationFactual Author:John Cheever
“I am an old-fashioned storyteller. I try to make people laugh and cry. A fiction writer's duty is to entertain. If you can sneak in something profound or symbolic, so much the better.” PeopleIfsTryingFictionLaughingCryDutyProfoundStorytellerOld FashionedSymbolicMaking People LaughSneakFiction WritersSneak In Author:W. P. Kinsella
“If we are too friendly to nice, decent bishops, we run the risk of buying into the fiction that there's something virtuous about believing things because of faith rather than because of evidence. We run the risk of betraying scientific enlightenment.” IfsBelieveRunningFictionNiceRiskEnlightenmentEvidenceDecentBuyingFriendlyBetrayVirtuousBishops Author:Richard Dawkins
“I see myself as a storyteller, I don't mind if the story is fact or fiction, if it's a good story I'd like to tell it.” IfsMindFactsStoriesFictionStorytellerGood Story Author:Leanne Pooley
“I remember reading an interview with a writer who said that in nonfiction if you have one lie it sort of messes it up. But in fiction the real details give you so much more credibility, because people do so much research just to write fiction. In fiction you're trying to recreate something lifelike.” PeopleIfsGivingWritingTryingSaidRealRememberLyingReadingFictionResearchDetailsMessInterviewsNonfictionCredibility Author:Edwidge Danticat
“Experiments with the "as if" of fiction are often more lively in poetry and criticism and other modes of writing than in weak short stories or novels.” IfsWritingStoriesFictionNovelCriticismWeakExperimentsShort StoryLively Author:Ben Lerner
“If asked to list my ten favorite American fiction writers, Gail Godwin would be among them. In this, her latest . . . she evokes in a short book the long married life of two artists. Evenings at Five is a strong tale of love-after-death.” IfsLongTwoBookWould BeArtistStrongFictionFiveTenMarriedListsTalesEveningAfter DeathEvokeFiction WritersMarried LifeGail Author:Ned Rorem
“When writers are self-conscious about themselves as writers they often keep a great distance from their characters, sounding as if they were writing encyclopedia entries instead of stories. Their hesitancy about physical and psychological intimacy can be a barrier to vital fiction. Conversely, a narration that makes readers hear the characters' heavy breathing and smell their emotional anguish diminishes distance. Readers feel so close to the characters that, for those magical moments, they become those characters.” IfsFeelsWritingSelfMomentsCharacterStoriesFictionEmotionalReaderConsciousDistanceHeavySmellPsychologicalIntimacyBreathingBarriersAnguishDiminishSelf ConsciousEntryEncyclopediaNarrationMagical Moments Author:Jerome Stern
“Read non-fiction. History, biology, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology. Get a bodyguard and do fieldwork. Find your inner fish. Don't publish too soon. Not before you have read Thomas Mann in any case. Learn by copying, sentence by sentence some of the masters. Copy Coetzee's or Sebald's sentences and see what happens to your story. Consider creative non-fiction if you want to stay in South Africa. It might be the way to go. Never neglect back and hamstring exercises, otherwise you won't be able to write your novel. One needs one's buttocks to think.” IfsThinkingWayWantNeedsWritingStoriesMightHappensAbleFictionCasesNovelCreativeMastersExerciseSouthFishesSentencesBiologyNeglectCopiesSouth AfricaPublishNon FictionCopyingBodyguardPaleontologyButtocksFieldworkHamstringsCoetzee Author:Marlene van Niekerk
“A political philosophy (often called "political science" by practitioners who are not averse from verbal trickery) must deal with contemporary realities. If it does not, if it is charged with "ideals," it is merely a variety of romantic fiction, although it may not be recognized as such.” IfsMayDoePhilosophyRealityPoliticalDealsFictionIdealsContemporaryVarietyPolitical PhilosophyPolitical ScienceTrickery Author:Revilo P. Oliver
“Anyone can write a specification, but if nobody implements it, what is it but a particularly dry form of science fiction.” IfsWritingFormFictionScience FictionDrySpecifications Author:Ian Hickson
“When you're writing a book that is going to be a narrative with characters and events, you're walking very close to fiction, since you're using some of the methods of fiction writing. You're lying, but some of the details may well come from your general recollection rather than from the particular scene. In the end it comes down to the readers. If they believe you, you're OK. A memoirist is really like any other con man; if he's convincing, he's home. If he isn't, it doesn't really matter whether it happened, he hasn't succeeded in making it feel convincing.” IfsMenFeelsWritingBelieveWellsMayBookEndsMatterCharacterHomeLyingFictionHappenedEventsParticularReaderWalkingSceneMethodDetailsNarrativeConvincingWriting A BookRecollectionFiction Writing Author:Samuel Hynes
“I believe that if it were possible to scrap the whole of existing literature, all writers would find themselves inevitably producing something very close to SF ... No other form of fiction has the vocabulary of ideas and images to deal with the present, let alone the future.” IfsBelieveIdeasWholeFormLiteratureI BelieveDealsFictionVocabularyScrap Author:J. G. Ballard