“All stories are true. But some of them never happened.”
James A. Owen The Search for the Red Dragon
Source: The Search for the Red Dragon
“All stories are true. But some of them never happened.”
James A. Owen The Search for the Red Dragon
Source: The Search for the Red Dragon
“All stories are true,” Skarpi said. “But this one really happened, if that’s what you mean.”
Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind
He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. “More or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.”
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 26, “Lanre Turned” (p. 203)
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
If it's a pattern that repeats in many, many places, with variation, you can abstract out the central pattern. So the pattern never purely existed in any specific form, but the fact that you pulled a pattern out from all those exemplars means that you've extracted something real. I think the reason that the story of Adam and Eve has been immune to being forgotten is because it says things about the nature of the human condition that are always true.
Other
Leigh Brackett (1915–1978) American novelist and screenwriter
Source: The Ginger Star (1974), Chapter 10 (p. 65)
Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director
Source: Dona Rosita la soltera