I'm not interested in making a diagnostic novel or a concern. I'm 100 percent committed in fiction to the pleasure principle -… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
I do, however, feel reasonably strongly the sense that the job of a piece of argumentative scholarly non-fiction is not the same… — China Mieville Copy Share Image
“I guess a bit part of serious fiction’s purpose is to give the reader, who like all of us is sort of… — David Foster Wallace Copy Share Image
I had seen the gay social chronicle done abundantly and done very well. And I didn't want to do any more of… — Christopher Rice Copy Share Image
In TV writing, I felt like Gulliver being tied down by the Lilliputians. There's so much more freedom in fiction writing. — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“Matt was almost completely naked. A tattered loincloth and an ugly chain with a yellow diamond were his only apparel.” — Priya Ardis Copy Share Image
“Lo! A call for a bloody trial- Retribution should it hail! Whose? you ask, For he that deems it a worthy task!” — Carol Robi Copy Share Image
It would be difficult for a writer of realism to avoid suggesting a political/moral perspective in his or her fiction. "Politics" per… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
“(Out of the Shadow is) Exceptional…Meticulously plotted, beautifully paced, its an intelligent, fascinating story that draws you in. I couldn't put it… — J.S. Winn Copy Share Image
“No respect for beauty – that was characteristic of today’s society. The works of the great masters were at most employed as… — John Ajvide Lindqvist Copy Share Image
“It is the case that, albeit to a lesser extent, all fictions make their readers live "the impossible", taking them out of… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
How I envy writers who can work on aeroplanes or in hotel rooms. On the run I can produce an article or… — John Banville Copy Share Image
Rick Bass is one of a dwindling handful of American fiction writers still celebrating the importance of place, the natural world, and… — Howard Frank Mosher Copy Share Image
“Science fiction inspires scientists, but it doesn't exist to dictate what our future should look like. Great science fiction is fun to… — Daniel H. Wilson Copy Share Image
I don't want to make a film that offends people, but the whole world is so politically correct - I'm not going… — Neill Blomkamp Copy Share Image
Science fiction has traditionally been economically naive, with a strong libertarian streak, which I think is like a crude Leninism. That's attractive… — Charles Stross Copy Share Image
A lot of time, with stories, I'll start out with a title and try to dream myself into the story that it… — Dan Chaon Copy Share Image
Trying to project our expectations and our desires onto the sci-fi being written in China now isn't terribly helpful. — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
I think that when you're writing fiction what you're doing is reflecting life as you see it, and putting down how you… — Helen Fielding Copy Share Image
“One must not ask for sincere autobiographies from writers. Fiction was invented precisely to give men the possibility of expressing themselves freely.” — Lev Shestov Copy Share Image
Real stories - whether in pure fiction or historical - have a certain indefinable power; we are endlessly curious about the past… — Simon Sebag Montefiore Copy Share Image
“Suddenly, a voice called from the darkness. Taylor leapt like a salmon, then became rooted to the spot like a tin of… — Mark Jackman Copy Share Image
The term 'steampunk' itself, now a badge of honor, began as a putdown, a joke. But like 'Big Bang' in cosmology, the… — Paul Di Filippo Copy Share Image
Science fiction has a way of letting you talk about where we are in the world and letting you be a bit… — Brit Marling Copy Share Image
SF isn't a genre; SF is the matrix in which genres are embedded, and because the SF field is never going in… — Larry Niven Copy Share Image
In all my science fiction movies, I try to blend the familiar with the futuristic so as not to be too off-putting… — David Twohy Copy Share Image
“This was a crime of passion, but unlike most crimes of passion, it had been meticulously and diabolically well-planned.” — Mark Zero Copy Share Image
“Life might be stranger than fiction, but fiction allows many writers to more accurately portray life to their readers.” — Jaime Buckley Copy Share Image
If I had simply wanted to trade on an insult to Islam, I could have done it in a sentence rather than… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
There are still some terrible cliches in the presentation of Indian fiction. The lotus flower. The hennaed hands. In mainland Europe, people… — Hari Kunzru Copy Share Image
I don't separate writing songs from poetry and short fiction. In the area where I work in my house, there's a word… — Steve Earle Copy Share Image
The most deeply personal of my works are the non-fiction works, the autobiographical works, because there, I'm talking about myself very directly. — Paul Auster Copy Share Image
“His smile is beautiful. It's the kind of smile that can take away all nervousness and tension in a room, no matter… — S. Elle Cameron Copy Share Image
The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography… — Rachel Carson Copy Share Image
My intent was to gain experience for fiction I eventually hoped to write. But there's no question I was drawn in by… — Tom Rachman Copy Share Image
Novels should be judged rigorously. Either a book works or it doesn't. The fact that something is true in the real world… — Akhil Sharma Copy Share Image
“Our aim is to make the world more beautiful than it was when we came into it. It can be done. You… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I myself am pathetically impressed when I meet writers of very long novels. How can they spend so many hundreds of hours… — Arthur Smith Copy Share Image
“There is a difference between fiction and nonfiction deeper than technique or intention. I value both but genuinely believe that fiction can… — Dorothy L. Sayersthy Allison Copy Share Image
“You can't make a fan of everyone. Stay true to your story, characters, music, art or whatever it is you do and… — Ann Marie Frohoff Copy Share Image
