Fiction Quotes - Page 21

• I am in the interesting position of being sometimes skimmed by the critics and called literature and sometimes called historical fiction.

  Philippa Gregory

  Interesting, Historical, Literature

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• The blurring of fact and fiction has great commercial potential, which is bound to be corrupting in historical terms.

  Antony Beevor

  Historical, Facts, Term

  "Real concerns" by Antony Beevor, www.theguardian.com. July 24, 2009.

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• A fascinating book and a great pleasure to read: Betool Khedairi is a talented new voice in fiction.

  Alaa Al Aswany

  Book, Voice, Pleasure

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• It took seven years from the day I decided I wanted to write fiction to actually getting a book published.

  Cynthia Kadohata

  Book, Writing, Years

  "National Book Award Winner Cynthia Kadohata on Self-Editing: 'It involves a lot of flailing around.'". Interview with Maryann Yin, www.adweek.com. November 25, 2013.

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• America's great talent, I think, is to generate desires that would never have occurred, natively,... and to make those desires so painfully real that money becomes a fiction, an imaginary means to some concrete end.

  Karen Russell

  Real, Mean, Thinking

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• In fiction, as in real life, love might inspire acts that are at best foolish and at worst life-threatening, but in the best romances, love is the final, secret ingredient that turns mere mortals into heroes and heroines.

  Sarah MacLean

  Real, Hero, Love Life

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• I think if you looked at the kind of ebb and flow of supernatural fiction and horror fiction, it does seem to be more popular in times when were hammered over the head daily with threats from all angles, very real threats.

  Michael Koryta

  Real, Thinking, Ebb And Flow

  "Sanctuary Of Suspense: A Lighthouse On 'The Ridge'". "Weekend Edition" with Linda Wertheimer, www.npr.org. July 10, 2011.

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• God is a fiction invented by people so they do not have to face the reality of their condition.

  Michel Onfray

  Reality, People, Faces

  "The big questions". Philosophie magazine Interview. Translated by Isabelle Chaise, www.newstatesman.com. April 2007.

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• A program of "disarmament," while imperialist antagonisms survive, is the most pernicious of fictions. Even if it were realized by way of general agreement - an obviously fantastic assumption!- that would by no means prevent a new war. The imperialists do not make war because there are armaments; on the contrary, they forge arms when they need to fight.

  Leon Trotsky

  War, Mean, Fighting

  Leon Trotsky (1937). “The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and where is it Going?”, p.171, Mehring Books

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• Fiction is an elemental force, which has the power to shape reality in its own image - or images, I should say - because reality, like light, exists not only as a single point or particle, but also as an array of possibilities.

  Ruth Ozeki

  Reality, Light, Shapes

  "Ruth Ozeki beats Thomas Pynchon to top Kitschie award" by Alison Flood, www.theguardian.com. February 13, 2014.

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• My most memorable science fiction experience was Star Wars and seeing R2D2 and C3PO. I fell in love with those robots.

  Cynthia Breazeal

  Stars, War, Memorable

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• Writing is such a solitary thing, so its nice, when Im discouraged, to see people still have such faith in fiction.

  Robert Boswell

  Nice, Writing, People

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• I was an outsider, never quite part of what was going on, always looking in. It turned out to be great preparation for writing fiction.

  Hallie Ephron

  Writing, Preparation, Never Quit

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• I stopped writing short fiction early on - I was never really good at it, and I never liked the results. So I stopped trying to fit the material I was working with into these tidy little short fiction packages.

  Susan Choi

  Writing, Trying, Littles

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• [Property] is a brilliant, chillingly revelatory piece of fiction, a work of craft, economy and such good merciless observation-one of those rare, crucial novels illuminating a history we think we know and understand so that after we've read it we'll never forget its truths.

  Ali Smith

  Thinking, Pieces, Crafts

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• For me, any fiction of nobles and swords necessarily has to be a story of corruption, injustice and savagely violent conflict - because any other treatment is going to have all the heft and realistic honesty of a bedtime fairy tale for five year olds.

  Richard K. Morgan

  Honesty, Years, Stories

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• Fact-checking is so boring compared to writing fiction.

  Francine Prose

  Writing, Facts, Boring

  "Francine Prose on ‘My New American Life’". Interview with Thessaly La Force, www.theparisreview.org. May 13, 2011.

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• I think poets are much more dramatic, more theatrical than fiction writers.

  Francine Prose

  Thinking, Dramatic, Poet

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• Once in a while - perhaps every 10 years, or even every generation - a novel appears that profoundly questions the way we look at the world, and at ourselves. Beijing Coma is a poetic examination not just of a country at a defining moment in its history, but of the universal right to remember and to hope. It is, in every sense, a landmark work of fiction

  Tash Aw

  Country, Years, Way

  "Growing up in the world". www.theguardian.com. May 2, 2008.

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• Genres do exist because frequent users of any large bookstore can instantly tell what any piece of fiction is supposed to be about by its title, its cover and its location in the shop.

  John Clute

  Location, Titles, Bookstores

  "In defense of science fiction" by John Clute, www.cnn.com. May 26, 1999.

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• Science fiction offers an intensely bracing angle of view for writers to adopt, especially in a time of constant innovation and crisis, and it is a scandal that in 1999 so many writers have written it and continue to write it in obscurity.

  John Clute

  Writing, Views, Innovation

  "In defense of science fiction" by John Clute, www.cnn.com. May 26, 1999.

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• From my years of teaching creative writing, I know that new writers take the setting for granted, as simply a place to set the action, but setting is a vital element in fiction writing and deserves serious treatment.

  Garry Disher

  Teaching, Writing, Years

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• Delaying and withholding tactics, red herrings, partial and doubtful outcomes are stock in trade for fiction writers, especially crime writers.

  Garry Disher

  Red, Tactics, Outcomes

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• I obviously read and adore traditional fiction. I teach traditional fiction; I also teach all kinds of not-so-traditional fiction.

  Heidi Julavits

  Kind, Adore, Teach

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• Many of my favorite survivors in fiction show that it may not be the most muscled, macho or mighty people who pull through. A strong mind and body arent always enough. You might also need a resilient heart.

  Claire Cameron

  Strong, Heart, People

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