“The finest SF comes to grips with life's mysteries, with our resentments against our own natures and our limited societies. It does… — George Zebrowski Copy Share Image
I'm not much of a plotter. I start off with an inciting incident, and in classic crime fiction what happens is that… — Denise Mina Copy Share Image
Mann and Joyce are very different, and yet their fiction often appeals to the same people: Harry Levin taught a famous course… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I have a process that I seem to always, to some degree, as a writer, adhere to, but I certainly have never… — John Irving Copy Share Image
The best conversation is rare. Society seems to have agreed to treat fictions as realities, and realities as fictions; and the simple… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Normal people have rock collections, shell collections, key ring collections and stamp collections. (The Captain had even known somebody with a letterbox… — Elizabeth Newton Copy Share Image
Houdini, the magician who debunked magic, could not bear to see the great rationalist [Arthur Conan] Doyle enchanted by ghosts and frauds.… — John Hodgman Copy Share Image
The most difficult part of writing a book is not devising a plot which will captivate the reader. It's not developing characters… — Randy Pausch Copy Share Image
I obviously read and adore traditional fiction. I teach traditional fiction, I also teach all kind of not-so-traditional fiction. And since I'm… — Heidi Julavits Copy Share Image
One of my favourite contemporary fiction writers is a Texan, Ben Fountain. His extraordinary novel, Billy Lynn's Long Half-Time Walk, all takes… — Adam Hochschild Copy Share Image
I was born in California, raised a vegetarian, and love science fiction, so don't tell me how I need to be in… — Aisha Tyler Copy Share Image
I was 45 when I wrote most of this book [Hungry Heart ], at what felt like a halfway point in my… — Jennifer Weiner Copy Share Image
Fiction is an elemental force, which has the power to shape reality in its own image - or images, I should say… — Ruth Ozeki Copy Share Image
“You can’t blame yourself for what Socrates did. Those birds came because he wanted them to come, at least a part of… — Ken Goldman Copy Share Image
Writing fiction is not a profession that leaves one well-disposed toward reading fiction. One starts out loving books and stories, and then… — Neil Gaiman Copy Share Image
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides By the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil… — Quentin Tarantino Copy Share Image
Funny as hell, searingly honest, and urgently real, Sam Pink's Rontel puts to shame most modern fiction. His writing perfectly captures the… — Joe Meno Copy Share Image
Novels shouldn’t aspire to answer questions, and I wouldn’t presume to offer advice about love or marriage in any case. What’s fascinating… — Nell Freudenberger Copy Share Image
“May was the best person I ever knew… She understood people and she let them be whatever way they needed to be.… — Cynthia Rylant Copy Share Image
“Author's Note This is not so much an author's note as an author's reminder of what was printed in small type a… — John Green Copy Share Image
Concentrate your narrative energy on the point of change. This is especially important for historical fiction. When your character is new to… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Is it possible that the Pentateuch could not have been written by uninspired men? that the assistance of God was necessary to… — Robert G. Ingersoll Copy Share Image
My father taught me to love detective fiction writers such as Raymond Chandler. When I decided to have a hard-boiled detective series… — Sue Grafton Copy Share Image
Size matters in fiction, but so does lack of size. Everything else being equal, fat novels tend to be perceived as serious,… — Walter Kirn Copy Share Image
I think I can do whatever I want with fiction, but the more documentary it is, the better it will be because… — Robert Greene Copy Share Image
Hard science fiction, which is what I write, often is rightly criticized for having either negligible or unbelievable characterization, but the science… — Robert J. Sawyer Copy Share Image
In a democracy in the 20th and 21st century, if you can't base your fiction upon ordinary people and the issues that… — John Updike Copy Share Image
I like the idea all memory is fiction, that we have queued a couple of things in the back of our minds… — Steven Tyler Copy Share Image
“Lyly placed her fingers over Patrick’s mouth. “Hush,” she whispered. “It was because of me and my family that you suffered-” Patrick’s… — Mary K. Savarese Copy Share Image
People ask me if I ever thought of writing a children's book. I say, 'If I had a serious brain injury I… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
“An elegantly crafted novel, "The Reluctant First Lady" clearly documents author Venita Ellick as an exceptionally accomplished writer able to skillfully weave… — Midwest Book Review August 2013 Copy Share Image
Records can be destroyed if they do not suit the prejudices of ruling cliques, lost if they become incomprehensible, distorted if a… — Henry Ford Copy Share Image
It's interesting how many science fiction writers get going when they are very young. I was on a program with Greg Bear… — Octavia Butler Copy Share Image
The films that I loved growing up were the science fiction films from the late seventies and early eighties [films], which were… — Duncan Jones Copy Share Image
If you record the world honestly, there's no way people can stop being funny. A lot of fiction writing doesn't get that… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
I wrote my graduate thesis at New York University on hard-boiled fiction from the 1930s and 1940s, so, for about two years,… — Megan Abbott Copy Share Image
With Rodham, for instance, it has to work on an emotional level. It has to work on a character level. If it's… — James Ponsoldt Copy Share Image
The spirit of 1776 is not dead. It has only been slumbering. The body of the American people is substantially republican. But… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I love painting and music, of course. I don't know nearly as much about them as I know about poetry. I've certainly… — Kenneth Koch Copy Share Image
The truth is, I can't help the way people perceive anything, from the role of financial industry in the economic crisis, to… — Erin Duffy Copy Share Image
![“Houdini, the magician who debunked magic, could not bear to see the great rationalist [Arthur Conan] Doyle enchanted by ghosts and frauds. And so he did what any friend would: He set out to prove spiritualism false and rob his friend Doyle of the only comforting fiction that was keeping him sane…” quote by John Hodgman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d71/john-hodgman-1811_arthur_houdini-the-magician-who-debunked-magic_461910.jpg)
![“I was 45 when I wrote most of this book [Hungry Heart ], at what felt like a halfway point in my life, and I thought, If I can't be honest now, when will it happen? It was so hard to step away from the [protection of] fiction, but I'm ready to talk start telling their truth.” quote by Jennifer Weiner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f9d/jennifer-weiner-2358_being-honest_i-was-45-when-i-wrote-most-of-this-book_2086521.png)
![“The films that I loved growing up were the science fiction films from the late seventies and early eighties [films], which were more about the people and how they are affected by the environments that they are in. Whether they are sort of futuristic or alien of whatever they are; that was the…” quote by Duncan Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/407/duncan-jones-12555_affected_the-films-that-i-loved-growing-up-were-t_2189987.jpg)
