Fiction Quotes - Page 39

• Science Fiction: Any scientific acclaim that omits God

  Johnny Hart

  Science Fiction, Acclaim

  4 Copy quote

• I got a degree in sociology, didn't read much fiction in college, and I was a pretty political, left-wing type of guy. I wanted to do some kind of work in social change and make things better for the poor man, and I was very romantic and passionate about it.

  Andre Dubus

  College, Men, Wings

  14 Copy quote

• Fiction, maybe art in general, is a tentative, uncertain enterprise; it's not science, it's an exploration, but you never find much in the way of answers.

  Tim O'Brien

  Art, Way, Answers

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  John McNally

  Reading, Writing, Two

  8 Copy quote

• As strange as this may sound, I very seldom read fiction. Because my novels require so much research, almost everything I read is non - fiction - histories, biographies, translations of ancient texts.

  Dan Brown

  Sound, Research, May

  4 Copy quote

• And for the authentical truth of either person or actions, who (worth the respecting) will expect it in a poem, whose subject is not truth, but things like truth? Poor envious souls they are that cavil at truth's want in these natural fictions; material instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soul, limbs, and limits of an authentical tragedy.

  George Chapman

  Soul, Tragedy, Want

  George Chapman (1874). “The Works of George Chapman: Plays”, p.178

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• A favorite science fiction writer of mine is William Faulkner! It was an idea that came to me once, years ago, and I've never quite been able to shake it. This is facetious, on one level at least. There are telepaths in As I Lay Dying. But I think the most compelling thing for me is there are moments with him where I just feel these are not humans talking to each other. These are some hyper-intelligent, yet-to-be-born organisms. The way they look at the past without having any loss of knowledge – everything that ever happened is still here.

  Robert Reed

  Loss, Thinking, Intelligent

  4 Copy quote

• I love films. I love fiction films, too. I do. I love making them, but it has to be the right one. Hopefully, I'll never become a director for hire. It's horrible to make a film that you're not really interested in.

  Oliver Stone

  Directors, Film, Love Making

  Source: collider.com

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I've spoken out my whole life against the idea of simply dismissing whole areas of fiction by saying it's "genre" and therefore can't be seen as literature.

  Stephen King

  Ideas, Literature, Genre

  Interview with Andy Greene, www.rollingstone.com. October 31, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or and people said: "Wait a minute, he's actually smart and he knows what he's doing!" I feel that with Hostel, any time you make a film like that it's going to illicit a strong reaction and you can't worry about that.

  Eli Roth

  Strong, Smart, People

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I hate to see great works of literature ghettoized, whereas others that conform to the rules, conventions, and procedures of the genre we call literary fiction get accorded greater esteem and privilege. I also have a problem with how books are marketed, with certain cover designs and typefaces. They're often stamped with an identity that has nothing to do with their effect on the reader.

  Michael Chabon

  Hate, Book, Design

  Interview with Elizabeth Benefiel, www.avclub.com. July 5, 2007.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I read mostly historical fiction - lots of stuff set in ancient Rome and ancient Greece. I also liked sci-fi and fantasy: David Gemmell, Raymond E. Feist. It's a nice escape from the world. As much as I do love real-life stories, they can often make you hurt in a way I'd rather not hurt.

  Henry Cavill

  Hurt, Real, Nice

  Interview with Elvis Mitchell, www.interviewmagazine.com. May 31, 2013.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the publishing world, most editors are probably women. So I don't see the publishing world as a male-dominated one, especially within fiction.

  Emma Donoghue

  Editors, World, Males

  "Room" Author/Screenwriter Emma Donoghue on Her "Deeply Feminist" Film and Industry Sexism". Interview with Laura Berger, www.indiewire.com. October 16, 2015.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• That's part of fiction, creating a world better than the one you live in.

  Padgett Powell

  Creating, World

  Interview with Royal Young, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 30, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• An important factor to note is that it's rare for anyone to sell a first novel written before they turned 30-35; long-format fiction tends to require a bunch of experience of human life that takes time to acquire. So your average mid-career novelist is in their forties to fifties!

  Charles Stross

  Careers, Average, Long

  Reddit AMA, www.reddit.com. July 02, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't do flash fiction.

  Charles Stross

  Flash

  4 Copy quote

• Speech recognition is utterly crap for writing fiction. If you try reading a novel aloud you'll soon figure out why - written prose style is utterly unlike the spoken word.

  Charles Stross

  Reading, Writing, Style

  Reddit AMA, www.reddit.com. July 02, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We see films all the time, whether they have access to all kinds of intellectual property or artifacts, and the one thing that they don't get is story. So I think whether you're talking about a biopic or an action film or a science-fiction film that has all the CGI in the world, if you're not trying to connect with an audience, it doesn't really matter.

  John Ridley

  Thinking, Talking, Intellectual

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Escaping into the fantasy of intellectual investigation or narrative story telling makes me feel hopeful. That too is a fiction, but one that makes me feel good sometimes.

  Andrew Neel

  Escaping, Feel Good, Hopeful

  Source: www.indiewire.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I had worked in fiction a lot before I started making documentaries, but when I was around 32 or 33-years-old I suddenly got so fed up with the world of fiction, which is so money-centered.

  Pirjo Honkasalo

  Years, Documentaries, World

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's said that if two documentary filmmakers meet they talk about the world, if two fiction filmmakers meet they talk about the million that they don't have to make their film.

  Pirjo Honkasalo

  Two, Documentaries, World

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I'm reading for my own pleasure, I read things other than history or archival material. I read a lot of fiction. I'm very fond of mysteries.

  David McCullough

  Reading, Mystery, Pleasure

  Source: www.bostonglobe.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I write fiction, I create characters whose views are not my own, and I allow them to be eloquent in defense of their, not my, views.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Character, Views

  Actusf Interview, www.actusf.com. 2000.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think having a great range of experiences in my life had helped me as a writer, particularly a writer of fiction. I have known a great many different sorts of people in different situations, and I have a notion how very well of badly people can behave in times of stress or danger or violence.

  Marge Piercy

  Stress, Thinking, People

  Interview with Charlotte Templin, margepiercy.com. May 2004.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I did not always know I would be a writer. Until I had a room of my own, I did not write much at all - no more than any other child who read a lot of books. I began to write fiction and poetry when I first had a room that was truly my own with a door that shut and some measure, however fragile, of privacy.

  Marge Piercy

  Children, Book, Writing

  Interview with Charlotte Templin, margepiercy.com. May 2004.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source