“As you see, I bear some resentment and some scars from the years of anti-genre bigotry. My own fiction, which moves freely around among realism, magical realism, science fiction, fantasy of various kinds, historical fiction, young adult fiction, parable, and other subgenres, to the point where much of it is ungenrifiable, all got shoved into the Sci Fi wastebasket or labeled as kiddilit - subliterature.” YearsKindMovingYoungMy OwnFictionFantasyBearsAdultsScience FictionHistoricalYoung AdultVariousGenreBigotryHistorical FictionSci FiScarResentmentRealismMagical RealismParables Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
“Realism is to fiction what gravity is to walking: a confinement that allows dancing under the right circumstances.” FictionCircumstancesWalkingDancingGravityRealismConfinement Author:George Saunders
“What is a novel? I say: an invented story. At the same time a story which, though invented has the power to ring true. True to what? True to life as the reader knows life to be or, it may be, feels life to be. And I mean the adult, the grown-up reader. Such a reader has outgrown fairy tales, and we do not want the fantastic and the impossible. So I say to you that a novel must stand up to the adult tests of reality.” KnowsWantFeelsMayMeanStoriesRealityTruthFictionNovelImpossibleReaderAdultsTestsRingsTalesFantasticFairyFairy TaleRealismTrue Life Author:Elizabeth Bowen
“Fiction doesn't appeal to me because it can describe physical appearances exhaustively or because it can offer access to the inner depths of an array of human characters - neither that kind of "realism" of bodily surfaces nor of individual psychologies seems particularly realistic to me.” HumansKindCharacterSeemsIndividualFictionPsychologyOffersDepthAppearanceSurfaceAccessAppealsRealisticRealismPhysical Appearance Author:Ben Lerner
“"Hard" science fiction probes alternative possible futures by means of reasoned extrapolations in much the same way that good historical fiction reconstructs the probable past. Even far-out fantasy can present a significant test of human values exposed to a new environment. Deriving its most cogent ideas from the tension between permanence and change, science fiction combines the diversions of novelty with its pertinent kind of realism.” WayHumansKindMeanIdeasHardPastValuesFictionFantasyEnvironmentTestsScience FictionHistoricalSignificantAlternativesTensionHistorical FictionExposedRealismNoveltyPermanenceDiversionHuman ValuesPertinentNew Environment Author:Jack Williamson
“I'm not a literary writer who is wedded to notions of realism and fiction. I believe that you can write anything if you can feel it convincingly.” IfsFeelsWritingBelieveI BelieveFictionNotionRealism Author:Christopher Rice
“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.” IfsWritingWould BePoliticalDifficultFictionMoralPerspectiveIronicRealismCompassAbsentSuggesting Author:Joyce Carol Oates