Writing Fiction Quotes - Page 4

• I instantly chucked my academic ambitions and began writing fiction full-time.

  Peter Straub

  Writing, Ambition, Fiction

  "PETER STRAUB: Connoisseur of Fear". Interview with Paula Guran, www.darkecho.com. June, 1997.

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• The process of writing fiction is totally unconscious. It comes from what you are learning, as you live, from within. For me, all writing is a process of discovery. We are looking for the meaning of life. No matter where you are, there are conflicts and dramas everywhere. It is the process of what it means to be a human being; how you react and are reacted upon, these inward and outer pressures. If you are writing with a direct cause in mind, you are writing propaganda. It's fatal for a fiction writer.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Drama, Writing, Mean

  "Nadine Gordimer on dividing fact from fiction" by Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. November 8, 2010.

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• When I'm writing about reality, I'm writing about death. When I'm writing fiction, I'm writing about life.

  Ralph Peters

  Writing, Reality, Fiction

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• It is popular to believe that in order to see clearly one must believe nothing. This may work well enough if you are observing cells under a microscope. It will not work if you are writing fiction. For the fiction writer, to believe nothing is to see nothing.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Believe, Writing, Cells

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• Writing fiction is like remembering what never happened.

  Siri Hustvedt

  Writing, Fiction, Remember

  Siri Hustvedt (2007). “A Plea for Eros: Essays”, p.41, Macmillan

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• Geisha because when I was living in Japan, I met a fellow whose mother was a geisha, and I thought that was kind of fascinating and ended up reading about the subject just about the same time I was getting interested in writing fiction.

  Arthur Golden

  Mother, Reading, Writing

  "A talk with Arthur Golden". Interview with Miles O'Brien, www.cnn.com. March 23, 1999.

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• When you are writing fiction your task is to reflect the fullest complications of the world

  Julian Barnes

  Writing, Tasks, Fiction

  Julian Barnes, Vanessa Guignery, Ryan Roberts (2009). “Conversations with Julian Barnes”, p.65, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Writing fiction has developed in me an abiding respect for the unknown in a human lifetime and a sense of where to look for the threads, how to follow, how to connect, find in the thick of the tangle what clear line persists.

  Eudora Welty

  Respect, Writing, Abiding

  Eudora Welty (1995). “One Writer's Beginnings”, p.90, Harvard University Press

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• You learn a lot, writing fiction.

  Penelope Lively

  Writing, Fiction

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• I tried writing fiction as a little kid, but had a teacher humiliate me, so didn't write again until I was a senior in college.

  Janet Fitch

  Senior, Teacher, Writing

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• So much emotion goes into writing fiction.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Writing, Fiction, Emotion

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• I'm always in the kitchen, cooking and experimenting - I love it. And every now and then I think, 'I should write a cookbook' or, 'I should write for food magazines.' And then I get drawn back to writing fiction again.

  Kiran Desai

  Writing, Thinking, Cooking

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• Expressing political opinion can be a powerful way to establish a character's voice when writing fiction.

  Jen Lancaster

  Powerful, Writing, Character

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• When I'm writing fiction I'm thinking, God, this is so hard - I have to make all this stuff up! I wish I were writing a nonfiction book where all the facts are laid out and I don't have to be so much at sea.

  Douglas Preston

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  "The Power of Two: Bonus Outtakes From WD Interview With Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston". Interview with Brian A. Klems, www.writersdigest.com. January 12, 2012.

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• I had been writing fiction since I was in eighth grade, because I loved it.

  Thomas Perry

  Writing, Fiction, Grades

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• In [writing] fiction, every sentence is its own reward.

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Fiction, Rewards

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• The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes sense and you know what it's about and why you're doing it and what these people are saying and doing, and you get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising ("but of course that's why he was doing that, and that means that...") and it's magic and wonderful and strange.

  Neil Gaiman

  Mean, Writing, Fire

  "Why Write?" by Neil Gaiman, journal.neilgaiman.com. October 15, 2007.

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• As a novelist, I mined my history, my family and my memory, but in a very specific way. Writing fiction, I never made use of experiences immediately as they happened. I needed to let things fester in my memory, mature and transmogrify into something meaningful.

  Ayelet Waldman

  Meaningful, Memories, Writing

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• I published only in academic journals in philosophy until I was in my 40s, but I had been writing fiction and poetry my whole adult life - without ever once trying to publish it, and rarely letting anyone read it.

  Cheryl Mendelson

  Philosophy, Writing, Trying

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• I first started writing fiction in college because I was attracted to beautiful sentences. I loved to read them. I wanted to write them.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Beautiful, Writing, College

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• I have to have music as a soundtrack to writing fiction. I listen to it at other times, too, but it helps me write.

  Jeff VanderMeer

  Writing, Fiction, Helping

  Source: www.esquire.com

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• Returning to writing fiction after 13 years away from it. Returning to the rootstock of my whole life as a writer. It's what I had wanted to be for my entire life, since I can remember, since my particular time immemorial. It's how I got my start as a writer.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Writing, Years, Fiction

  "Elizabeth Gilbert, 'Eat, Pray, Love' Author, On What It Takes To Get Inspired (PHOTOS)". Interview with Chantal Pierrat, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 11, 2013.

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• I think the thing that I lost in myself when I stopped writing fiction and the thing that I rediscovered and started mining again is, for lack of a better word, magic. It's the way you can brush up against the inexplicable and the mystical.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Writing, Thinking, Magic

  "Elizabeth Gilbert, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ Author, On What It Takes To Get Inspired". Interview with Chantal Pierrat, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 11, 2013.

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• Yeah, I know what your English Professor tried to tell you. But if your English Professor could make a living writing fiction, they would have been doing it.

  Dean Wesley Smith

  Writing, Fiction, Yeah

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• I love stories, but writing fiction is another craft and I don't feel as if I have it.

  Joan Larkin

  Writing, Fiction, Stories

  "Road Trip". Interview with Ali Liebegott, logger.believermag.com. October 25, 2013.

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