“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
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …
In Joy Still Felt (1980), pp. 286-287
General sources
“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
The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 5, as quoted in Moving to Antarctica : An Anthology of Women's Writing (1975) by Margaret Kaminski
Diary entries (1914 - 1974)
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.
Graham Greene (1904–1991) English writer, playwright and literary critic
Letter to critic Stephen Pile, Sunday Times (London) (January 18, 1981)
“a writer must always tell the truth (unless he's a journalist)”
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer
Source: The American Presidency
James Jones (1921–1977) American author
Letter to his brother Jeff, from Hawaii (7 April 1941); p. 11
To Reach Eternity (1989)
