Playing around with symbols, even as a critic, can be a kind of kiddish parlor game. A little of it goes a long way. There are other things of greater value in any novel or story … humanity, character analysis, truth on other levels, etc., etc. Good symbolism should be as natural as breathing … and as unobtrusive.
– Ray Bradbury
Tag: truth
Quotable 472
You don’t become a novelist to become a spinner of entertaining lies: you become a novelist so you can tell the truth.
– Hilary Mantel
Quotable 396
Maybe the hardest thing in writing is simply to tell the truth about things as we see them.
– John Steinbeck
Quotable 384
Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.
– June Jordan
Quotable 377
A novel should be an experience and convey an emotional truth rather than arguments.
– Joyce Cary
Quotable 351
Folk legend, fairytale, myth are thought of as escapist, but in reality they’re not – they’re distilled metaphor and truth.
– Alan Garner
Quotable 297
The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.
– John Steinbeck
Quotable 257
Fiction can sometimes tell the truth better than facts.
– Tony Hillerman
Quotable 249
Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.
– Khalid Hosseini
#quikfic 117
“Truth or dare, Mike?” “Truth.” “What’s the worse thing you’ve done?” “Hid my sister’s EpiPen so she would die of a food allergy.”