“And I do think that great fiction, even when it's comedic, has an urgency or an inevitability to it, a sense that the writer absolutely had to write this particular story in this way.” ThinkingWayWritingStoriesFictionParticularUrgencyInevitabilityComedic Author:Karen Russell
“There are very real differences between science fiction and realistic fiction, between horror and fantasy, between romance and mystery. Differences in writing them, in reading them, in criticizing them. Vive les différences! They're what gives each genre its singular flavor and savor, its particular interest for the reader - and the writer.” GivingWritingRealRomanceReadingInterestDifferencesFictionFantasyMysteryParticularReaderHorrorScience FictionGenreCriticizeRealisticFlavorRealistic Fiction Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
“Many of the early greats of sf Hugo Gernsback (publisher of Amazing Stories) in particular saw themselves as educators. The didactic thrust of science fiction got the genre initially pegged as children's fare. It was seen, at its best, as an extension of school and, at its worst, as teenage wish fulfillment.” ChildrenStoriesSchoolWishFictionSawsWorstParticularScience FictionGenreFulfillmentExtensionsTeenagePublishersThrustEducatorDidactic Author:Samuel R. Delany
“Returning to writing fiction after 13 years away from it. Returning to the rootstock of my whole life as a writer. It's what I had wanted to be for my entire life, since I can remember, since my particular time immemorial. It's how I got my start as a writer.” WritingYearsI CanWholeWantedRememberFictionParticularWhole LifeWriting Fiction Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
“Everyone has a bizarre childhood and unusual life experiences, whether they know it or not. There's no such thing as a normal childhood. What's useful in writing weird fiction is learning how to understand and articulate those moments of personal, particular strangeness.” KnowsWritingMomentsFictionChildhoodParticularNormalUnusualLife ExperienceBizarreStrangeness Author:Kelly Link
“the habit of generalizing from one particular, that mainstay of the cheap and obvious essayist, has rooted many fictions in the public eye. Nothing, for example can blot from my memory the profound, searching, and exhaustive analysis of a great nation which I learned in my small geography when I was a child, namely, 'The French are a gay and polite people fond of dancing and light wines.” PeopleChildrenLightEyeNationsMemoriesFictionExampleParticularHabitGayWineDancingProfoundObviousAnalysisRootedPoliteGeographyGreat NationsPublic EyeEssayists Author:Kate Douglas Wiggin
“I didnt have any particular talent for fiction. I took a class in college.” FictionClassTalentCollegeParticular Author:Ira Glass
“I've read crime fiction all my life. A thing that's bothered me about crime fiction is that it's generally about one or two people, but there's not much about society. I want to get away from that particular pattern: a lead, a supporting role and backdrop characters.” PeopleWantTwoCharacterFictionRolesCrimeParticularPatternsGet AwayBotheredCrime FictionBackdropSupporting Roles Author:Steig Larsson
“I know that for every reader who has lost the habit or can't find the time, there are people who've never enjoyed reading and question the value of literature, either as entertainment or education, or believe that a love of books, and of fiction in particular, is sentimental or frivolous.” PeopleKnowsBelieveBookValuesReadingLiteratureLostFictionParticularReaderHabitEntertainmentEnjoyedSentimentalFrivolousSentimental Value Author:David Nicholls
“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
“Everybody always talks about the science fiction genre, in particular, which always makes me think about people in spaceships. I can appreciate that, but that's not really where I think my dramatist aspect lies.” PeopleThinkingI CanLyingFictionParticularAspectAppreciateScience FictionGenreSpaceships Author:Quentin Tarantino
“If Fobbit leaves a reader feeling stranded in some bland in-between territory, then I haven't done my job. But having said all that, I didn't consciously write the book with a particular moral intent. I took what I experienced and processed it through the sausage factory of fiction. It's up to readers to interpret what's on the page - as is the case with any novel.” IfsWritingSaidBookDoneFeelingsJobsFictionMoralCasesNovelHavensParticularReaderPagesTerritoryFactoriesSausageBlandStranded Author:Dave Abrams
“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
“What writers of fantasy, science fiction, and much historical fiction do for a living is different from what writers of so-called literary or other kinds of fiction do. The name of the game in F/SF/HF is creating fictional worlds and then telling particular stories set in those worlds. If you're doing it right, then the reader, coming to the end of the story, will say, "Hey, wait a minute, there are so many other stories that could be told in this universe!" And that's how we get the sprawling, coherent fictional universes that fandom is all about.” IfsWorldKindDifferentEndsStoriesUniverseGamesNamesWaitingFictionFantasyMinutesParticularReaderCreatingScience FictionHistoricalHeyHistorical FictionFandomsFictional Worlds Author:Neal Stephenson
“Most people have made this mistake of thinking Middle-earth is a particular kind of earth or is another planet of the science fiction sort but it's just an old fashioned word for this world we live in, as imagined surrounded by the Ocean.” PeopleThinkingWorldKindMadeEarthMistakeFictionMiddleThis WorldParticularPlanetsOceanScience FictionOld FashionedMiddle Earth Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
“I came to fantasy fairly late. For some ten years, I had been happily writing fiction and non-fiction for adults. But I always loved fantasy, whether for adults or young people; and at that particular point in my life, I wanted to try it, to understand it, as part of the process of learning to be a writer. The results were beyond anything I could have foreseen. As I've said often and elsewhere, it was the most creative and liberating experience of my life.” PeopleWritingTryingYearsSaidWantedYoungProcessResultsFictionFantasyCreativeParticularTenLateAdultsElsewhereLiberatingNon FictionWriting FictionForeseen Author:Lloyd Alexander