“Science fiction without the science just becomes, you know, sword and sorcery, basically stories about heroism and not much more.” KnowsStoriesFictionScience FictionHeroismSorcery Author:Michio Kaku
“I think both you and I, we live in a world of fiction and stories.” ThinkingWorldStoriesFiction Author:Regina Spektor
“I'm much more drawn to fiction, to short stories, and to plays, than I am to diarists.” PlayStoriesFictionShort Story Author:Regina Spektor
“The story of what has happened to women in Afghanistan, however, is a very important one, and fertile ground for fiction.” ImportantStoriesFictionHappenedAfghanistanFertileFertile Ground Author:Khaled Hosseini
“I love telling stories, I love for someone to see something, and go, "Oh, wow, I've never thought of it that way." Because I've had those moments in my life, where I go, "Oh, my God, I've never looked or approached this topic and had that insight or had that idea come to mind," to where it changes your life, it changes the way you see certain things. I love that. I think that's such a cool thing that we get to do by sharing stories, whether they're fiction or nonfiction.” ThinkingWayMindIdeasMomentsStoriesCertainFictionInsightWowNonfictionTopicsChanging Your LifeTelling StoriesThings I LoveCool ThingsSharing Stories Author:Tyler Hoechlin
“[Michael] Chabon, who is himself a brash and playful and ebullient genre-bender, writes about how our idea of what constitutes literary fiction is a very narrow idea that, world-historically, evolved over the last sixty or seventy years or so - that until the rise of that kind of third-person-limited, middle-aged-white-guy-experiencing-enlightenment story as in some way the epitome of literary fiction - before that all kinds of crazy things that we would now define as belonging to genre were part of the literary canon.” WorldWayWritingYearsKindPersonsIdeasStoriesLastsGuyWhiteFictionCrazyMiddleEnlightenmentThirdsAll KindsGenreBelongingSixtySeventiesMiddle AgedCanonCrazy ThingsEpitomeWhite GuysThird PersonBrash Author:Emily Barton
“Fantasy and science fiction stories are very applicable to talking to your children about the world. They tend to talk about the big questions regarding life and the universe.” WorldChildrenStoriesBigsUniverseFictionTalkingFantasyOur ChildrenScience FictionYour ChildrenBig QuestionsFiction Stories Author:Stephen H. Segal
“To me experimental fiction ultimately is about the experiment and I'm not interested in experiments for their own sake, and if anything I've always steered a bit clear of that kind of thing, because it seems gimmicky to play around with text rather than do the work of telling a story and creating characters.” IfsKindPlayCharacterStoriesSeemsBitsFictionClearCreatingSakeExperimentsNot InterestedCreating Characters Author:Steve Erickson
“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
“My fiction is a very accurate reflection of the world we live in. Certainly, in some stories, that reflection is amplified but America elected a man who enjoys grabbing women by their pussies.” MenWorldStoriesAmericaEnjoyFictionReflectionAccuratePussyGrabbing Author:Roxane Gay
“I'm very interested in film making. It's telling a story, fiction or non-fiction. I have been filmed quite a lot. Contrary to popular belief, filming isn't glamorous. It can be wearingly repetitious, as the same shot is taken over and over again.” Has BeensStoriesFilmBeliefFictionTakenShotsContraryNon FictionGlamorousContrary To Popular Belief Author:Stephen Hawking
“My general approach to writing fiction is that you try to have as few conceptual notions as possible and you just respond to the energy that the story is making rather than having a big over plan. I think if you have a big over plan, the danger is that you might just take your plan and then you bore everybody. I always joke that it's like going on a date with index cards. You know, at 7:30 p.m. I should ask about her mother. You keep all the control to yourself but you are kind of insulting to the other person.” IfsThinkingKnowsShouldWritingTryingKindPersonsStoriesBigsMightMotherAsksEnergyFictionPlansDangerApproachJokesNotionCardsBoresInsultingWriting Fiction Author:George Saunders
“I like to think that one of things I've done with non-fiction since the very beginning is to find new ways of telling true stories.” ThinkingWayDoneStoriesFictionNew WaysNon FictionTrue Story Author:Errol Morris
“In fact, people seem to be tired of fiction now. There are so many other ways of exploring humanity - by ethnology, psychoanalysis, and so on. It's a little boring to make up stories. So many people think that it's better to be very close to reality and to recount one's life as it is rather than to fictionalize, as they say, that is to transpose, and therefore to cheat.” PeopleThinkingWayLittlesFactsStoriesRealitySeemsHumanityFictionTiredBoringCheatExploringPsychoanalysis Author:Simone de Beauvoir
“What interests me about fiction is plot. And what interests me about plot is whether someone tells a story that moves me within the constraints of storytelling. And I have narrowly defined storytelling.” StoriesMovingInterestFictionStorytellingDefinedPlotConstraints Author:Malcolm Gladwell
“Truth is better than fiction in terms of telling the story.” StoriesTermFictionTruth Is Author:Kristi Jacobson
“I felt like I was a writer, and I just thought filmmaking was the best way for me to express that, because it allows me to embrace the visual world that I love. It's allows me to interact with people, to be more social than fiction or poetry, and it felt like the right way for me to tell the stories that felt pressing to me.” PeopleWorldWayStoriesSocialFeltFictionEmbraceBest WayVisualsFilmmakingRight Way Author:Lena Dunham
“I'm definitely excited by big ideas, both in what I write and what I read. Most days, reality is so mind-numbingly dull that I don't understand why someone would write strictly realistic stories, given the almost limitless freedom fiction provides. I don't see the point of making believe if you're not going to actually make believe: hang your ass out in the wind, push at every boundary, make almost unreasonable demands on your reader's willingness to suspend disbelief. This is dangerous, and prone to failure, but that's part of what makes it fun.” IfsWritingMindBelieveIdeasStoriesBigsRealityGivenFunFictionDangerousWindReaderDemandExcitedBoundariesAssDullWillingnessRealisticLimitlessDisbeliefUnreasonableMake BelieveBig Ideas Author:Ron Currie Jr.
“It's kind of alarming for me to realize that, when I'm writing stories about times I remember, it's already historical fiction.” WritingKindStoriesRememberRealizingFictionHistoricalHistorical FictionWriting Stories Author:Wendell Berry
“I think it is our job, as writers, to be epic. Epic and tiny at the same time. If you're going to be a fiction writer, why not take on something that means something. In doing this, you must understand that within that epic structure it is the tiny story that is possibly more important.” IfsThinkingMeanImportantStoriesJobsFictionStructureTinyWhy NotEpicFiction Writers Author:Colum McCann
“Maybe I'm perverse, but the question of "rooting" for a character, or setting out to write a character for whom other people will root, has never had anything to do with why I read or write fiction. As long as the writing and story remain alive, intense, invigorating, provoking, the characters can be as demonic or saintly as the author wants.” PeopleWantWritingLongCharacterStoriesFictionAliveRootsIntenseSettingSettingsProvokingDemonicInvigorating Author:James Lasdun
“Considering that "literary fiction" is a sub-genre that's not quite the same as "literature," either, it follows that the short, semi-humorous bits posted online for all to see are something absolutely other, uniquely themselves compared to canonical short stories, for example, and so it'd probably be best to call it something other than "online lit" since I honestly think very little of it can compare to so-called "literature."” ThinkingLittlesStoriesLiteratureBitsFictionExampleHumorousHonestlyCompareGenreOnlineShort StoryConsideringLit Author:Lee Klein
“The power of story is potent and that's why historical fiction can be an extraordinarily significant way of teaching people logical truth propositions, moves you along, moves your emotions as well as informs your intellect.” PeopleWayWellsStoriesMovingEmotionFictionTeachingHistoricalIntellectSignificantLogicalHistorical FictionPropositionsPower Of Stories Author:Hank Hanegraaff