Reading Fiction Quotes

Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we've never met, living lives we couldn't possibly experience for ourselves, because the book puts us inside the character's skin.

Ann Patchett

Live Life, Book, Reading

35 Copy quote
You should never read just for "enjoyment." Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends' insane behavior, or better yet, your own. Pick "hard books." Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for god's sake, don't let me ever hear you say, "I can't read fiction. I only have time for the truth." Fiction is the truth, fool! Ever hear of "literature"? That means fiction, too, stupid.

John Waters

Motivational, Stupid, Book

31 Copy quote
...Don't let me ever hear you say, 'I can't read fiction. I only have time for the truth.' Fiction is the truth, fool! Ever hear of 'literature'? That means fiction, too, stupid.

John Waters

Stupid, Mean, Fiction

8 Copy quote
Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings.

Ann Patchett

Reading, Mean, Important

"Ashton Kutcher’s ‘Raj’ Ad: Where Do We Draw the Line?" by Eleni Gage, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 3, 2012.

6 Copy quote

Show source
Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

Ann Patchett

Reading, Character, Mean

"And the Winner Isn’t..." by Ann Patchett, www.nytimes.com. April 17, 2012.

31 Copy quote

Show source
Writing fiction, like reading fiction, is a practice in empathy.

Jennifer Haigh

Reading, Writing, Practice

4 Copy quote
I have two pairs of reading glasses. One pair is for reading fiction, the other for non-fiction. I've read the Bible twice wearing each pair, and it's the same.

Steven Wright

Reading, Glasses, Two

8 Copy quote
That is the joy of reading fiction: when all is said and done, the novel belongs to the reader and his or her imagination.

Alice Hoffman

Reading, Imagination, Joy

Twitter post from Apr 30, 2016

4 Copy quote

Show source
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.

Charles Stross

Jobs, Reading, Writing

5 Copy quote
But my philosophy is that plot advancement is not what the experience of reading fiction is about. If all we care about is advancing the plot, why read novels? We can just read Cliffs Notes.

George R. R. Martin

Philosophy, Reading, Advancement

4 Copy quote
Movies feel like work, and reading fiction feels like work, whereas reading nonfiction feels like pleasure.

Peter Morgan

Reading, Nonfiction, Pleasure

"The Six Senses of Peter Morgan". Interview with Daniel D'Addario, www.interviewmagazine.com. October 15, 2010.

4 Copy quote

Show source
I'm terrible at reading fiction. I don't have the attention span - it's awful.

Charlie Brooker

Reading, Attention, Fiction

"The Man Behind Netflix’s “Black Mirror” Is Maybe a Little Too Good at Predicting the Future". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. October 14, 2016.

4 Copy quote

Show source
I always wanted to be a writer! But I wanted to do other things, too - be a psychologist, a librarian, et cetera. Now Ive decided that reading fiction that features characters who are in those professions will do.

Helen Oyeyemi

Reading, Character, Fiction

6 Copy quote
I love reading fiction about people who are connecting intellectually. I find that exhilarating.

Lily King

Reading, People, Fiction

Source: www.guernicamag.com

4 Copy quote

Show source
Oh no, real life is escape. The great terrors, the horrors--we hope--of your life come from reading fiction.

Orson Scott Card

Real, Reading, Fiction

4 Copy quote
And I am pretty sure that's the point of reading fiction -- so someone else can say in a way you never would have something you recognize immediately.

Curtis Sittenfeld

Reading, Fiction, Way

4 Copy quote
Writing fiction is not a profession that leaves one well-disposed toward reading fiction. One starts out loving books and stories, and then one becomes jaded and increasingly hard to please. I read less and less fiction these days, finding the buzz and the joy I used to get from fiction in ever stranger works of non-fiction, or poetry.

Neil Gaiman

Book, Reading, Writing

Neil Gaiman (2002). “Adventures in the Dream Trade”, N E S F A Press

4 Copy quote

Show source
Dad always said that he had enough trouble sorting the fiction out of so-called facts, without reading fiction. He always said that science was already too muddled without trying to make it jibe with religion. He said those things, but he also said that science itself could be a religion, that a broad mind was always in danger of becoming narrow.

Jim Thompson

Dad, Reading, Mind

Jim Thompson (1997). “Crime novels: American noir of the 1950s”

6 Copy quote

Show source
And if I'm guilty of having gratuitous sex, then I'm also guilty of having gratuitous violence, and gratuitous feasting, and gratuitous description of clothes, and gratuitous heraldry, because very little of this is necessary to advance the plot. But my philosophy is that plot advancement is not what the experience of reading fiction is about. If all we care about is advancing the plot, why read novels? We can just read Cliffs Notes.

George R. R. Martin

Sex, Philosophy, Reading

4 Copy quote
No one can teach writing, but classes may stimulate the urge to write. If you are born a writer, you will inevitably and helplessly write. A born writer has self-knowledge. Read, read, read. And if you are a fiction writer, dont confine yourself to reading fiction. Every writer is first a wide reader.

Cynthia Ozick

Reading, Writing, Self

4 Copy quote
As a rule reading fiction is as hard to me as trying to hit a target by hurling feathers at it. I need resistance to celebrate!

William James

Reading, Book, Trying

7 Copy quote