Quotes: Truth and Fiction

TRUTH AND FICTION

Writing makes a map, and there is something about a journey that begs to have its passage marked.
Christina Baldwin

When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.
Otto von Bismarck

My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.
Anton Chekhov

The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.
Tom Clancy

Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality.
Joseph Conrad

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.
Philip K. Dick

Rule one of reading other people's stories is that whenever you say 'well that's not convincing' the author tells you that's the bit that wasn't made up. This is because real life is under no obligation to be convincing.
Neil Gaiman

Story is to human beings what the pearl is to the oyster.
Joseph Gold

Our lives with all their miracles and wonders are merely a discontinuous string of incidents – until we create the narrative that gives them meaning
Arlene Goldbard

Why would anybody lie? The truth is always more colourful.
Jerry Hall

Fiction is a lie, and good fiction is the truth inside the lie.
Stephen King

Use your imagination. Trust me, your lives are not interesting. Don't write them down.
W. B. Kinsella

Stories open up new paths, sometimes send us back to old ones, and close off still others. Telling and listening to stories we too imaginatively walk down those paths – paths of longing, paths of hope, paths of desperation.
Arthur Kleinman

Fiction is about stuff that's screwed up.
Nancy Kress

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
John Lennon

Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen.
Maimonides

I once asked Barbara Stanwyck the secret of acting. She said: 'Just be truthful – and if you can fake that, you've got it made'.
Fred McMurray

Thus, in a real sense, I am constantly writing autobiography, but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility.
Katherine Paterson

No tale tells all.
Alexei Panshin

Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away.
Elvis Presley

Truth maybe stranger than fiction, but fiction is truer.
Frederic Raphael

I write fiction because it's a way of making statements I can disown.
Tom Stoppard

Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything.
Ivana Trump
...upon finishing her first novel

Get you facts first, and then you can distort 'em as much as you please.
Mark Twain

Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.
Mark Twain