“Literary fiction is kept alive by women. Women read more fiction, period.”
~ Khaled Hosseini, b. 4 March 1965
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Tag Archives: fiction
J.G. Ballard (b. November 15): “Fiction is a branch of neurology” & other quotes
15 Nov
J.G. Ballard (born 15 November 1930, died 19 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave movement in science fiction. His best-known books are Crash and the semi-autobiographical Empire of the Sun, made into a film by Steven Spielberg, based on Ballard’s boyhood during the Second World War.
His work has given rise to the adjective ‘Ballardian’, defined by the Collins English Dictionary as ‘resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard’s novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments’.
Quotes on writing:
- Any fool can write a novel but it takes real genius to sell it.
- I felt the pressure of imagination against the doors of my mind was so great that they were going to burst.
- Fiction is a branch of neurology: the scenarios of nerve and blood vessels are the written mythologies of memory and desire.
- But I wouldn’t recommend writing. You can be a successful writer and never meet another soul. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
- Given that external reality is a fiction, the writer’s role is almost superfluous. He does not need to invent the fiction because it is already there.
- I work for three or four hours a day, in the late morning and early afternoon. Then I go out for a walk and come back in time for a large gin and tonic.
- I’ve never suffered from writer’s block. I have plenty of ideas, sometimes too many. I’ve always had a strong imagination. If it dries up I’ll stop and look for another career.
- If their work is satisfying people don’t need leisure in the old-fashioned sense. No one ever asks what Newton or Darwin did to relax, or how Bach spent his weekends.
- I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen.
Robert Louis Stevenson (b. November 13): “Always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in…”
13 Nov
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Robert Louis Stevenson (born 13 November 1850, died 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer whose most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Quotes on writing:
- Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.
- The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.
- All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.
- It is not likely that posterity will fall in love with us, but not impossible that it may respect or sympathize; so a man would rather leave behind him the portrait of his spirit than a portrait of his face.
- I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.
Neil Gaiman (b. November 10): “You get ideas from being bored” & other quotes on writing
10 Nov
Neil Gaiman, born 10 November 1960, is an English author who writes short stories, novels, comic books, graphic novels and films. His novels include Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book.
Quotes on writing
- Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.
- Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
- You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it.
- Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book, and we resume our lives.
- Stories you read when you’re the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you’ll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.
Albert Camus (b. November 7): “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth” & other quotes on writing
7 Nov
Albert Camus (born 7 November 1913, died 4 January 1960) was a French author, journalist, and philosopher. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature, the second-youngest recipient after Rudyard Kipling, and the first African-born writer to receive the award. He died in a car accident two years after receiving the award.
Quotes on writing
- Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.
- A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.
- The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.
- People can think only in images. If you want to be a philosopher, write novels.
- Those who write clearly have readers; those who write obscurely have commentators.
Roald Dahl (b. September 13): “The life of a writer is absolute hell.”
13 Sep
“The life of a writer is absolute hell. If he is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.”
~ Roald Dahl, b. 13 September 1916
Khaled Hosseini (b. March 4th): “Literary fiction is kept alive by women…”
4 Mar
“Literary fiction is kept alive by women. Women read more fiction, period.”
~ Khaled Hosseini, b. 4 March 1965
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