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

— William Faulkner

Last update Sept. 4, 2022. History

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William Faulkner 214

American writer 1897–1962

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“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”

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“The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.”

Anaïs Nin book The Diary of Anaïs Nin

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Context: The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. Most of the writing today which is called fiction contains such a poverty of language, such triteness, that it is a shrunken, diminished world we enter, poorer and more formless than the poorest cripple deprived of ears and eyes and tongue. The writer's responsibility is to increase, develop our senses, expand our vision, heighten our awareness and enrich our articulateness.