“Who knew? If the illusion is quite perfect, who is to say it is not real?”

Sam Harris, Adventures in the Land of Illness http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/adventures-in-the-land-of-illness (May 26, 2014) <br class="br">2010s

Enlightenment
Song lyrics, Enlightenment (1990)

"About the screenplay for Strangers on a Train" (notes, 1950), first published in Raymond Chandler Speaking (1962), section "Chandler on the Film World and Television", p. 134
Context: When you read a story, you accept its implausibilities and extravagances, because they are no more fantastic than the conventions of the medium itself. But when you look at real people, moving against a real background, and hear them speaking real words, your imagination is anaesthetized. You accept what you see and hear, but you do not complement it from the resources of your own imagination. The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half-piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 29

A Gift of Wings (1974)
Source: https://books.google.de/books?id=InUpHgnif58C&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=An+old+maxim+says+that+a+professional+writer+is+an+amateur+who+didn%27t+quit&source=bl&ots=RpDceaKvsx&sig=ACfU3U0n2qLBUs3E_5CDTfLDvLPmk3tB7A&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiB16L5_5jyAhWlgf0HHeQyD2oQ6AF6BAgREAM#v=onepage&q=An%20old%20maxim%20says%20that%20a%20professional%20writer%20is%20an%20amateur%20who%20didn't%20quit&f=false A Gift of Wings

Source: Dear Life: Stories

Source: Oceans of Fire

Source: Bluebeard (1987), p. 168

in C++ 0x - An Overview at University of Waterloo Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/media/C++0x%20-%20An%20Overview.html