“First-rate science fiction was, and remains, more interesting than second-rate art.”
Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist
Ibid.
Essays and reviews, From the Land of Shadows (1982)
Source: The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973-1982
“First-rate science fiction was, and remains, more interesting than second-rate art.”
Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist
Ibid.
Essays and reviews, From the Land of Shadows (1982)
“All of our separate fictions add up to joint reality.”
Stanisław Jerzy Lec book Unkempt Thoughts
Unkempt Thoughts (1957), p. 93; also p. 21
“Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.”
Paul Theroux (1941) American travel writer and novelist
New York Times (July 28, 1976).
“A play is fiction — and fiction is fact distilled into truth.”
Edward Albee (1928–2016) American playwright
The New York Times (18 September 1966)
“Non-fiction contains facts, fiction contains truth.”
Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist
Next Testament (Boom Studios, 2014)
Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed
Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.22
Context: The strange and wonderful Book of Job treats of the same subject as we are discussing; its contents are a fiction, conceived for the purpose of explaining the different opinions which people hold on Divine Providence.... This fiction, however, is in so far different from other fictions that it includes profound ideas and great mysteries, removes great doubts, and reveals the most important truths. I will discuss it as fully as possible; and I will also tell you the words of our Sages that suggested to me the explanation of this great poem.
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XV
Misquoted as "Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." by Laurence J. Peter in "Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time", among many others.
Following the Equator (1897)
Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
“Fictions of law must be consistent with justice.”
William Henry Maule (1788–1858) British politician
Whitaker v. Wisbey (1852), 6 Cox, C. C. 111.