Best fiction & writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 4

“I like to think of myself as a fiction writer who liked art enough to write about it for a while, and then went on to his fiction.”

Thinking Writing Art Enough Fiction Fiction Writers

Author:Tom Robbins

“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

“Metafiction says something. It has to do with taking a large fiction itself and writing within it; that kind of self-reflecting writing that emerges from it can be thought of as metafictional.”

Writing Kind Self Fiction Reflecting

Author:Robert Coover

“I probably spend more time writing than reading science fiction. I find that science-fiction literature is so reactive to all the literature that's gone before that it's sort of like a fractal. It's gone to a level of detail that the average person could not possibly follow unless you're a fan. It iterates upon many prior generations of iterations.”

Writing Persons Reading Literature Levels Fiction Gone Generations Fans Science Fiction Average Details More Time Average Person Fractals

Author:James Cameron

“Fiction writing is an act of imagination, lived experience is secondary in many ways, writing a novel really is all about inventing worlds and people.”

People World Way Writing Imagination Fiction Novel Inventing Fiction Writing

Author:Ayana Mathis

“That is as true for fiction or non-fiction. The writer has to really know their subject. It is really important to remember that the readers are a lot smarter than the writer. Also, good writing has to do with rewriting. You will never get it right the first time. So you rewrite and rewrite again until you get it right. Until you, and the reader, will be able to visualize what you're writing about.”

Knows Writing Firsts Important Able Remember Fiction Subjects Reader First Time Smarter Non Fiction Good Writing Rewriting

Author:Michael Scott

“My advice is to write about what you are interested in. If you read science fiction and fantasy, then write in that genre. If you read romance novels, then try writing one.”

Ifs Writing Trying Romance Fiction Fantasy Novel Advice Science Fiction Genre Romance Novel Science Fiction And Fantasy

Author:Michael Scott

“Writing poetry helps me to write my fiction; each thing helps the other.”

Writing Helping Fiction Help Me Writing Poetry

Author:Sandra Cisneros

“I would write light entertainment nonfiction pieces during the day, then come home and work on my fantasy fiction. It was very difficult to get out of the one mindset and into another one.”

Writing Home Light Difficult Fiction Fantasy Pieces Entertainment Mindset Coming Home Nonfiction

Author:Cassandra Clare

“I didn't study writing in school, I studied biology as an undergraduate and graduate student. So I think that I write fiction in the scientific way. I love invention, obviously; I love creation of character. But I do feel very rooted in the real world, even in the way that I create characters.”

Thinking World Way Feels Writing Real Character School Fiction Study Creation Students Invention Biology Real World Graduates Rooted Graduate Students Undergraduate

Author:Barbara Kingsolver

“In fact, one of the things that I really love about literary fiction is that it's one of the few kinds of writing that doesn't tell us what to think or what to buy or what to wear. We're surrounded by advertising.”

Thinking Writing Kind Facts Fiction Advertising

Author:Barbara Kingsolver

“Because I write fiction that is based in the real world, it's going to lead people into some of the modern dilemmas and concerns and even catastrophes that they will think about in a new way.”

People Thinking World Way Writing Real Fiction Modern Concern Real World New Ways Catastrophe Dilemma

Author:Barbara Kingsolver

“With non-fiction writing I feel like I'm confined and driven by what actually happened. That makes the "plot". So it's a process of getting all of my notes typed up, then scanning through the notes, trying to extract or find certain vignettes that seem like they might write well - that might have a potential for good energy, shape, etc. And then at some point I start stringing these together, keeping an eye on the word count.”

Feels Writing Trying Wells Seems Might Eye Together Certain Energy Process Fiction Happened Shapes Notes Driven Etc Plot Confined Non Fiction Fiction Writing Good Energy Scanning Vignettes

Author:George Saunders

“The one thing fiction and non-fiction writing have in common for me is that sense of trying to get the sentences to be minimal but at the same time be a little overfull - to encourage them to do a kind of poetic work.”

Writing Trying Kind Littles Common Fiction One Thing Sentences Poetic Non Fiction Fiction Writing

Author:George Saunders

“I think I'm too lazy a writer to do something like historical fiction. You have to do so much research. I just write what I know.”

Thinking Knows Writing Fiction Research Historical Lazy Historical Fiction

Author:Sarah Dessen

“When you're writing fiction, you don't have notes necessarily. You don't carve it, it's not like a piece of sculpture, it's more like water color.”

Writing Water Fiction Pieces Color Notes Sculpture Writing Fiction

Author:Joan Didion

“I don't write science fiction. I've only done one science fiction book and that's Fahrenheit 451, based on reality. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal.”

Writing Book Real Done Reality Fiction Fantasy Science Fiction Unreal Depiction

Author:Ray Bradbury

“I still think that of all the people doing top fiction today, John D. MacDonald is the best.He was my model as a kid. If there are people out there that want to write, all you need to do is read 20 of his stories to get an idea what it takes to make a story kick over.”

People Ifs Thinking Want Needs Writing Stills Ideas Stories Kids Today Fiction Models Kicks

Author:Stephen King

“Science fiction is a great way to pretend you are writing about the future when in reality you are attacking the recent past and the present. You can criticize communists, racists, fascists or any other clear and present danger, and they can't imagine you are writing about them.”

Way Writing Reality Past Fiction Clear Imagine Danger Science Fiction Racist Criticize Communist Attacking Fascists Recent Past

Author:Ray Bradbury

“There are certain kinds of people who write science fiction. I think a lot of us married late. A lot of us are mama's boys. I lived at home until I was 27. But most of the writers I know in any field, especially science fiction, grew up late. They're so interested in doing what they do and in their science, they don't think about other things.”

People Thinking Knows Writing Kind Home Certain Fiction Boys Fields Grew Late Married Grew Up Science Fiction Mama Mama's Boy

Author:Ray Bradbury

“I write fiction longhand. That's not so much about rejecting technology as being unable to write fiction on a computer for some reason. I don't think I would write it on a typewriter either. I write in a very blind gut instinctive way. It just doesn't feel right. There's a physical connection. And then in nonfiction that's not the case at all. I can't even imagine writing nonfiction by hand.”

Thinking Way Feels Writing I Can Reason Hands Fiction Cases Technology Imagine Computer Connections Blind Guts Nonfiction Typewriters Feels Right Rejecting Writing Nonfiction

Author:Jennifer Egan

“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

“I can write with authority only about what I know well, which means that I end up using surface details of my own life in my fiction.”

Knows Writing Wells Mean I Can Ends My Own Fiction Authority Details Surface My Own Life

Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“I think human beings exist in a social world. I write realistic fiction, and so it isn't that surprising that the social realities of their existence would be part of the story.”

Thinking World Writing Humans Stories Reality Would Be Social Human Beings Existence Fiction Realistic Surprising Realistic Fiction

Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“I don't write fiction but I do write narrative; I write memoirs that I treat like stories, so whenever I'm using somebody I actually know as a model, I am submitting them to the agenda of a storyteller, and I feel free to do what I want.”

Knows Want Feels Writing Stories Fiction Models Treats Memoir Narrative Agendas Storyteller

Author:Vivian Gornick

“Many great authors of the 19th century wrote under conditions of strict censorship. The great thing about the art of writing a novel, is that you can write about anything. All you have to say is that it's fiction.”

Writing Art Fiction Novel Conditions Century Great Things Censorship Strict 19th Century Art Of Writing Great Author

Author:Orhan Pamuk

“It's just the garbage in/garbage out trick. If you're not taking any fiction in, good or bad, then how can you be spitting any back out (good or bad)? I can't even imagine trying to write without reading. Really, I can hardly write a novel at all if I'm not reading just book after book.”

Ifs Writing Trying I Can Book Reading Fiction Novel Imagine Tricks Garbage

Author:Stephen Graham Jones

“Writing, of course, it's not all in your head. Not talking about the 'manual' act of typing here either, but that, when your fiction's really working, your whole body's involved, and then some.”

Writing Whole Body Courses Fiction Talking Involved Not Talking Manuals Typing

Author:Stephen Graham Jones

“Writing fiction is an act of imagination and fantasizing, and it's not relating in prose what you've been doing for the last two or three years.”

Writing Years Two Lasts Three Imagination Fiction Prose Three Years Writing Fiction

Author:Bret Easton Ellis

“Probably the best way to describe my writing style is to refer you to "purple prose", which was a tag given to the early mass market magazine writers earning a half cent a word for their fiction. They had to use every adjective, verb and adverb in the English language to add word count to stories in order to feed and support families.”

Way Writing Stories Use Order Language Given Half Fiction Support Style Mass Add Best Way Magazines Prose Cents Earning Purple English Language Verbs Tag Adjectives Writing Style Adverbs

Author:Tom Johnson

“Southern writing is regional: it includes dialect, settings, and cultural traditions from that region. However the themes and story conflicts are universal. My challenge is to write regional fiction without falling into the trap of nostalgia. There are important issues facing the south that I believe should be raised in the stories to make them contemporary, believable, and relevant to today's readers.”

“Once you're imagining being the main character, and you're having the conversations and actually being there, the magic in fiction writing takes over.”

Writing Character Fiction Magic Conversation Being There Fiction Writing Main Characters

Author:Will Hobbs

“I love writing fiction - you can take just what you want from a place, and leave the rest.”

Want Writing Fiction What You Want Writing Fiction

Author:Kate Grenville

“I don't write non-fiction because I get bored. Some of my writing is autobiographical, but not the way readers imagine. I use my memory of settings, events and people. I weave history into my stories, but my narratives are made up.”

People Way Writing Made Stories Use Memories Fiction Imagine Events Reader Setting Settings Narrative Bored Non Fiction

Author:Sefi Atta

“I have to say that writing about my writing process is more daunting than writing non-fiction.”

Writing Process Fiction Writing Process Non Fiction

Author:Sefi Atta

“It's always difficult to write honestly of one's deepest feelings, particularly without the protective veil of fiction. But the more difficult, the more rewarding if one succeeds. Rewarding not only to the work but to one's peace of mind.”

Ifs Writing Mind Feelings Difficult Fiction Succeed Honestly Peace Of Mind Veils Protective Deepest Feelings

Author:Alix Kates Shulman

“To be perfectly frank: I don't write women's fiction. I write intimate, gritty, realistic, character-driven fiction that happens to be thrown into the women's fiction category.”

Writing Character Happens Fiction Driven Intimate Thrown Categories Realistic Frank

Author:Jillian Medoff

“It takes a certain kind of mind to narrate, to work through character motivation, to be unforgiving to one's writer-self when it comes down to creating the minutiae of detail. Writing fiction requires stamina, a sense of how people's lives work, how people work toward and against one another and, above all, precision.”

People Writing Mind Kind Self Character Motivation Certain Fiction Creating Details Precision Stamina Writing Fiction Unforgiving Minutiae

Author:Cate Marvin

“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.”

“I say at the very end of "Winter Journal" that I do dream about my father often. I think I have a tremendous compassion for him, which has grown over the years. A certain kind of pity for him also in that he was so unrealised as a human being, so dogged, and so shut-off from people in many ways. You know, I've been writing another book, and it's another non-fiction autobiographical work, kind of a compliment to "Winter Journal", and it's just finished.”

People Thinking Knows Way Writing Years Humans Kind Book Ends Dream Certain Father Human Beings Fiction Compassion Winter Finished Pity Compliment Journal Non Fiction

Author:Paul Auster

“The kind of fiction I'm trying to write is about telling the truth.”

Writing Trying Kind Fiction Telling The Truth

Author:Paul Auster

“But I hate things all fiction... there should always be some foundation of fact for the most airy fabric - and pure invention is but the talent of a liar.”

Should Writing Facts Hate Fiction Talent Pure I Hate Foundation Invention Liars Fabric Airy

Author:Lord Byron

“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

“I began to write fiction on the assumption that the true enemies of the novel were plot, character, setting and theme, and having once abandoned these familiar ways of thinking about fiction, totality of vision or structure was really all that remained.”

Source: A John Hawkes symposium: design and debris

“I believe that, like most writers, my personality comes through in the fiction. So in that respect my writing can’t be like any other author’s really.”

Writing Believe I Believe Fiction Personality

Author:Paul Kane

“I was writing fiction steadily, but I found that the stark determinisms of code were a welcome relief from the ambiguities of literary narrative.”

Writing Found Fiction Welcome Narrative Code Relief Ambiguity Starks Determinism Writing Fiction

Book:Geek Sublime: Writing Fiction, Coding Software

Source: Geek Sublime: Writing Fiction, Coding Software

“I have always known that writing fiction had little effect on the world; that if it did, young men would not have gone to war after The Iliad.”

Ifs Men World Writing Littles War Young Fiction Known Gone Effects Young Man Writing Fiction Iliad

Book:Broken Vessels: Essays

Source: Broken Vessels: Essays

“When I was younger I wanted to be a big movie star who'd get to be funny on talk shows and then I wanted to retire and write science fiction.”

Writing Shows Bigs Wanted Stars Fiction Science Fiction Retiring Movie Star Talk Shows Big Movie

Author:Scott Thompson

“If you want to be a fiction writer, you need to start reading like a fiction writer. To do so, you need to learn about craft so that the next time you pick up a contemporary short story, you're reading it not as an abstraction floating in formaldehyde, existing simply for the theorist's dull scalpel to saw on, but as a concrete thing constructed out of words and shaped by syntax, brought to life by a writer who made several thousand choices, some large, some small, before letting that imperfect beauty, the story, walk on its own two feet.”

“What I read: while I'm writing, I tend to go off reading fiction for relaxation - especially the challenging stuff. It's too much like the day job.”

Writing Jobs Reading Stuff Challenges Fiction Too Much Relaxation Day Jobs Reading Fiction

Author:Charles Stross

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