Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free read more

Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.

A film is -- or should be -- more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of read more

A film is -- or should be -- more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings.

A play is fiction and fiction is fact distilled into truth.

A play is fiction and fiction is fact distilled into truth.

The only imaginative fiction being written today is income tax returns.

The only imaginative fiction being written today is income tax returns.

Fiction is not a dream. nor is it guesswork. It is imagining based on facts, and the facts must be read more

Fiction is not a dream. nor is it guesswork. It is imagining based on facts, and the facts must be accurate or the work of imagining will not stand up.

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.

A writer is congenitally unable to tell the truth and that is why we call what he writes fiction.

A writer is congenitally unable to tell the truth and that is why we call what he writes fiction.

All that non-fiction can do is answer questions. It's fiction's business to ask them.

All that non-fiction can do is answer questions. It's fiction's business to ask them.