Best fiction & journalism Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Fiction just has a lot more room for ambivalence and internal conflict, contradiction, and for me that sums up so much of what people felt after 9/11 - confusion even. And I think that's hard to capture in journalism.”

People Thinking Hard Felt Rooms Fiction Conflict Confusion Journalism Contradiction Internals Capture Ambivalence Internal Conflict

Author:Amy Waldman

“I was a journalism major, and I would take creative writing classes as part of that, but I would also look for opportunities to write stories for some of my other classes. So for my course in Scandinavian history, I asked if I could write historical fiction instead of term papers. Sometimes they’d say yes.”

“A good writer should be able to write comedic work that made you laugh, and scary stuff that made you scared, and fantasy or science fiction that imbued you with a sense of wonder, and mainstream journalism that gave you clear and concise information in a way that you wanted it.”

“In the end, the discipline of verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda, fiction, or art.”

Art Ends Fiction Discipline Entertainment Journalism Propaganda Verification

Book:The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

Source: The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

“In journalism, a fact is just a fact. But in fiction, you have to build your case. It has to be made, step by step.”

Made Facts Fiction Steps Cases Journalism

Author:Edward P. Jones

“A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction.”

Writing Trying Reason Reality Literature Fiction Distance Journalism Journalist Novelists Petty Fake People

Book:Mornings in the dark: the Graham Greene film reader

Source: Mornings in the dark: the Graham Greene film reader

“writing had to take the form of journalism. Not for me the Shangri-la of fiction. The rewards, if any, would have been too little and too late, the bailiffs were at the door. ... Two large bailiffs, they were, who visited frequently and smiled like grand pianos, the only really reliable men in my life. They told me what they were going to do and if they did it, woe was me.”

Ifs Men Writing Littles Has Beens Two Form Fiction Doors Late Rewards Journalism Piano Too Late Woe Shangri

Author:Jill Tweedie

“Journalism only tells us what men are doing; it is fiction that tells us what they are thinking, and still more what they are feeling. If a new scientific theory finds the soul of a man in his dreams, at least it ought not to leave out his day-dreams. And all fiction is only a diary of day-dreams instead of days. And this profound preoccupation of men's minds with certain things always eventually has an effect even on the external expression of the age.”

Ifs Thinking Men Mind Stills Soul Feelings Dream Age Certain Fiction Effects Expression Theory Ought Profound Journalism Diaries Preoccupation Scientific Theory

Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton

“A couple of pieces of advice for the kids who are serious about writing are: first of all, to read everything you can get your hands on so you can become familiar with different forms of writing: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, journalism. That's very important. And also keep a journal. Not so much, because it's good writing practice. Although it is, but more because it's a wonderful source of story starters.”

“Being able to create your own work, being able to indulge your own fantasies is so much better than journalism, so much more fulfilling than journalism, to me, that as long as I can continue to write fiction, I shall.”

Writing Long I Can Able Fiction Fantasy Journalism Fulfilling Indulge

Author:Tom Robbins

“In a sense, journalism can be both helpful and detrimental to a writer of fiction because the kind of writing you need to do as a journalist is so different. It has to be clear, unambiguous, concise, and as a writer often you are trying to do things that are more ambiguous. I find that writing fiction is often an antidote to reading and writing too much journalism.”

Needs Writing Trying Kind Different Reading Fiction Clear Too Much Journalism Journalist Helpful Antidote Ambiguous Writing Fiction Reading And Writing Detrimental Concise

Author:Aravind Adiga

“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.”

“Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.”

Giving Writing Opportunity Fiction Reader Journalism Witness Hiroshima

Author:John Hersey

“It's very hard to be a screenwriter. I remember getting a couple of awards. I got a PEN West award a million years ago when I did Running on Empty, and I sat in the room with all these writers. They wrote everything from novels to non-fiction to children's books to journalism - any kind of writing - and I realized that there was no one in the room who would ever read anything I'd written.”

“More people pay attention to fiction and to narrative than pay attention to journalism. That's quite sad. More people pay attention to television than to prose. That's equally sad, if not more so.”

People Ifs Pay Attention Fiction Television Journalism Pay Attention Narrative Prose

Author:David Simon

“The difference between fiction and journalism is that you can disguise the characters, so you won't get your legs broken, and there's no interview tapes to transcribe.”

Character Differences Fiction Broken Legs Journalism Interviews Tape Disguise

Author:Sylvie Simmons

“You can't be wrong in journalism. Take a wrong turn in journalism, and you are writing fiction. You can take a wrong turn in poetry, and something wonderful can happen.”

Writing Happens Turns Fiction Wonderful Journalism Writing Fiction Wrong Turn

Author:Eliza Griswold

“I think the deepest thing is that many fiction writers tell stories but are not elegant writers. But, we're not writing journalism when we're making literature.”

Thinking Writing Stories Literature Fiction Journalism Elegant Fiction Writers

Author:Edward Hirsch

“Fiction isn't made by scraping the bones of topicality for the last shreds and sinews, to be processed into mechanically recovered prose. Like journalism, it deals in ideas as well as facts, but also in metaphors, symbols and myths.”

Wells Made Ideas Facts Lasts Deals Fiction Metaphor Bones Myth Symbols Journalism Prose Scraping

Author:Hilary Mantel

“In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work. In contrast, in fiction one single fact that is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That's the only difference, and it lies in the commitment of the writer. A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it.”

People Want Giving Believe Long Facts Lying Can Do Differences Fiction Commitment Prejudice Journalism Novelists Just One Contrast Legitimacy

Author:Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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