“History is the history of human behavior, and human behavior is the raw material of fiction. Most people recognize that novelists do research to get the facts right - how a glove factory works, for example, or how courtesans in imperial Japan dressed.” PeopleHumansFactsFictionExampleMaterialsBehaviorResearchNovelistsJapanFactoriesHuman BehaviorGlovesRaw MaterialsCourtesans Author:Amy Waldman
“...But I don't think I'm the only person who is tired of books and movies full of paper-doll characters you don't care about, who have no self-respect and no respect for anybody or any institution....And I don't want to sound preachy or Victorian, but I'm tired of amorality in fiction and in real life. Immorality is a fascinating human dilemma that creates suspense for the readers and tension for the characters, but where is the tension in an amoral situation? When people have no personal code, nothing is threatening and nothing is meaningful.” PeopleThinkingWantWritingHumansPersonsBookRealSelfCharacterCareSoundFictionSituationReaderPaperInstitutionsTiredDon't CareMeaningfulReal LifeSuspenseCodeTensionSelf RespectFascinatingThreateningDollsDilemmaI'm TiredImmoralityVictorianNo RespectBooks And MoviesAmorality Author:Olive Ann Burns
“I have long admired the visceral storytelling and moral complexity of John Vaillant’s brilliant non-fiction about humankind’s tragically ambivalent relationship with the natural world. Now he brings his abundant literary gifts to a debut novel set in a very real borderland in which human beings are themselves treated like animals. The Jaguar’s Children is a beautifully rendered lament for an imperiled culture and the brave lives that would preserve it. You should read it.” WorldShouldHumansChildrenLongRealCultureNaturalHuman BeingsAnimalFictionMoralNovelBraveBrilliantTreatedStorytellingPreservesComplexityHumankindNatural WorldNon FictionLamentVisceralDebutAmbivalentJaguars Author:John Burnham Schwartz
“I'd love to do a movie where the monster is human, where the issue is not otherworldly, or horror or science fiction.” HumansFictionIssuesHorrorScience FictionMonsters Author:J. J. Abrams
“This is a work of fiction. All the characters in it, human and otherwise, are imaginary, excepting only certain of the fairy folk, whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof.” HumansCharacterMightCertainLiteratureExistenceFictionDoubtFolksFairyImaginaryCastingFaerieUnwise Author:Neil Gaiman
“What are the hallmarks of a competent writer of fiction? The first, it seems to me, is that he should be immensely interested in human beings, and have an eye sharp enough to see into them, and a hand clever enough to draw them as they are. The second is that he should be able to set them in imaginary situations which display the contents of their psyches effectively, and so carry his reader swiftly and pleasantly from point to point of what is called a good story.” ShouldFirstsHumansEnoughStoriesHandsSeemsEyeAbleHuman BeingsFictionSituationReaderDrawsCleverDisplayImaginaryCompetentGood StoryHallmarkPsych Author:H. L. Mencken
“I think human beings wouldn't be human without narrative fiction.” ThinkingHumansHuman BeingsFictionNarrative Author:Paul Auster
“Until recently we’ve only been able to speculate about story's persuasive effects. But over the last several decades psychology has begun a serious study of how story affects the human mind. Results repeatedly show that our attitudes, fears, hopes, and values are strongly influenced by story. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than writing that is specifically designed to persuade through argument and evidence.” WritingMindHumansFactsStoriesShowsSeemsAbleLastsValuesBeliefResultsAttitudeFictionStudyPsychologyEffectsSeriousEvidenceArgumentDecadesHuman MindPersuasive Author:Jonathan Gottschall
“Science fiction, because it ventures into no man's lands, tends to meet some of the requirements posed by Jung in his explorations of archetypes, myth structures and self-understanding. It may be that the primary attraction of science fiction is that it helps us understand what it means to be human.” MenHumansMayMeanSelfHelpingUnderstandingFictionLandScience FictionStructureMythAttractionPrimariesExplorationVentureRequirementsArchetypeJungSelf UnderstandingWhat It Means To Be Human Author:Frank Herbert
“'2001' was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined.” HumansMomentsAgeLyingFictionForeverWrittenSeaDividesTranquilityHuman HistoryBuzzArmstrongIntertwined Author:Arthur C. Clarke