Writing Fiction Quotes

73 quotes by 66 authors

I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay, rather than the novel. — Alain de Botton
Whether it is done quickly or slowly, however splendid the results, the process of writing fiction is inherently, inevitably, indistinguishable from wasting time. — Deborah Eisenberg
In science there is a dictum: don't add an experiment to an experiment. Don't make things unnecessarily complicated. In writing fiction, the more fantastic the… — Ben Bova
Writing fiction is an inherently political activity because people-even imaginary ones-do not live in vacuums... From Twilight to Romeo and Juliet to The Little Mermaid,… — John Green
Under fun's new administration, writing fiction becomes a way to go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don't want to see or… — David Foster Wallace
Writing fiction is a solitary occupation but not really a lonely one. The writer's head is mobbed with characters, images and language. — Hilma Wolitzer
Once I got started, I wanted the life of a writer so fiercely that nothing could stop me. I wanted the intensity, the sense of… — Lynne Sharon Schwartz
I instantly chucked my academic ambitions and began writing fiction full-time. — Peter Straub
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… — Nadine Gordimer
When I'm writing about reality, I'm writing about death. When I'm writing fiction, I'm writing about life. — Ralph Peters
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… — Flannery O'Connor
Writing fiction is like remembering what never happened. — Siri Hustvedt
I would, however, start writing fiction about 10 years before I actually did, because it's such great fun to do, many times more creative than… — Judith Krantz
One learns much more by writing fiction, because the insights come from those deeper subconscious levels where the greater and more interesting truths lie. — Francine du Plessix Gray
Writing fiction is a solitary occupation but not really a lonely one. The writer's head is mobbed with characters, images and language, making the creative… — Hilma Wolitzer
Fiction ought to announce the problems, dramatize the problems, display them. Yet offer no set answer. An answer would solve the mystery. Writing fiction, for… — Antonya Nelson
The art of writing fiction is to sail as dangerously close to the truth as possible without sinking the ship — Kinky Friedman
Writing fiction is ... an endless and always defeated effort to capture some quality of life without killing it. — Rose Wilder Lane
I think if I had been writing fiction, where the work is entirely dependent on the writer's creativity and the potential directions the narrative might… — Laura Hillenbrand
Nothing changed in my life since I work all the time," Pamuk said then. "I've spent 30 years writing fiction. For the first 10 years… — Orhan Pamuk

Who Wrote These Writing Fiction Quotes

66 authors contributed a total of 73 Writing Fiction Quotes, led by these top contributors: