Do writers of fiction tell lies or just tall stories?

It's kind of strange-- in fiction you get to tell lies and are applauded for it.

— Robert James Waller

Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.

— Alexander McCall Smith

“[E]verything is fiction. When you tell yourself the story of your life, the story of your day, you edit and rewrite and weave a…

— Keith Ridgway

You can tell within a sentence if something is fiction or non-fiction. You can tell in the artifice of the language or the care…

— Ethan Canin

Memory is a fiction we tell ourselves: just a piece of the truth.

— Chelsea Cain

“There is a difference between fiction and nonfiction deeper than technique or intention. I value both but genuinely believe that fiction can tell a…

— Dorothy L. Sayersthy Allison

I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story.

— Wilkie Collins

It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.

— Gao Xingjian

Writers, at least writers of fiction, are always full of anxiety and worry.

— Peter Carey

Fact is often stranger than fiction because most writers of fiction try to make their stories plausible.

— Richard Posner

“Writers of fiction embellish reality almost without knowing it.”

— Aljean Harmetz

A friend of mine who writes history books said to me that he thought that the two creatures most to be pitied were the…

— Katherine Paterson

The most underrated of all contemporary American writers of fiction.

— William March

“what people write reflects what they believe—fiction is where you go to tell or read the truth that people will stare or laugh at…

— Michael Marshall

Symbolism is alright in 'fiction,' but I tell true life stories simply about what happened to people I knew.

— Jack Kerouac