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David Mamet28
American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film direc… 1947Related quotes
“Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all.”
Neil Gaiman (1960) English fantasy writer
Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming (2013)
Context: We writers – and especially writers for children, but all writers – have an obligation to our readers: it's the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were – to understand that truth is not in what happens but what it tells us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all.
“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”
Albert Camus (1913–1960) French author and journalist
Pablo Picasso said something very similar. Perhaps it is the source? From Herschel B. Chipp’s Theories of Modern Art: "We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand."
Disputed
“I didn't lie! I just created fiction with my mouth!”
Homér Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey
“I didn't lie, I was writing fiction with my mouth."
Homer Simpson”
Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist
Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer
Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
“We deny that poetry is fiction; its merit and its power lie alike in its truth:”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist
The Monthly Magazine
“One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach — waiting for a gift from the sea.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea
Gift from the Sea (1955)
Context: The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach — waiting for a gift from the sea.