“My remembrance of the past is a novel I am constantly recomposing; and it would not be a historical novel, but sheer fiction, if the material events which mark and ballast my career had not their public dates and characters scientifically discoverable.” IfsCharacterPastFictionCareersNovelEventsMaterialsMarkHistoricalSheerRemembranceHistorical NovelsBallast Book:The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings Source: The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings
“But the mark of American merit in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, in eloquence, seems to be a certain grace withoutgrandeur, and itself not new but derivative; a vase of fair outline, but empty,--which whoso sees, may fill with what wit and character is in him, but which does not, like the charged cloud, overflow with terrible beauty, and emit lightnings on all beholders.” MayDoeCharacterSeemsAmericaCertainFictionUnited StatesGracePaintingTerribleFairsEmptyMarkCloudsWitMeritLightningSculptureEloquenceOutlinesOverflowDerivativesBeholderVases Book:Essays and Lectures Source: Essays and Lectures
“Maybe I have a one-track mind, but the best writers and thinkers are focusing on nonfiction these days; this is the genre where a writer can make a mark and change an aspect of the world - much more so than in fiction.” WorldMindFictionAspectMarkTrackThese DaysGenreThinkerNonfiction Author:Lee Gutkind
“For me, it's a way to find a fiction within a fiction. To find a way to uncover that blunder within the "lie," because when you look closer, every "lie" - and I say that with quotation marks - can be much more complicated. Because that is what fiction is: it's probably the least important thing in the world. It's rich, but it is put-on, it passes the time. It borrows from the world, but it does not invent it.” WorldWayLooksDoeImportantLyingFictionRichMarkImportant ThingsComplicatedQuotationsBlundersQuotation Marks Author:Sergio Chejfec
“Fiction is risky for writers also in that the process of making certain books, of shaping certain narratives, leaves scars and marks on your inner life.” BookCertainProcessFictionMarkNarrativeScarInner Life Author:Chris Abani