Fiction General Quotes

We're more interested in the editor of this Astounding Science Fiction. General Groves sent me to ask that someone who knows more about this work you're doing interview this" - he glanced at a card - "John W. Campbell. ~ Gregory Benford

I am the prosecutor. I represent the state. I am here to present to you the evidence of a crime. Together you will weigh this evidence. You will deliberate upon it. You will decide if it proves the defendant's guilt. ~ Scott Turow

Even though he did not hear me sometimes so that I had to repeat my questions a second or third time. By then my tone was as abrasive as the coarse hair or the boar. How he annoyed me! ~ Tosca Lee

She will toss the leaves in a wooden bowl with a micro spray of olive oil, a drop of balsamic vinegar, the insanely expensive balsamic vinegar that she bought at the gourmet store, so viscous it drips in a slow, thick stream. A tomato. A Persian cucumber. These will emerge, pristine, from her tiny refrigerator, chilled, perfect. She will slice them thinly and fan them into beautiful patterns, a vegetable mandala, courtesy of the mandoline, a feast for the eyes. She will hand-crumple Parmigiano Reggiano onto the top, and then, from on high, she will brandish the mill and grind coarse crystals of pink salt form the Himalayas into fine, sparkly shavings that will float, like snowflakes, onto the pale green surface of her salad. ~ Janice Y.K. Lee

Malachite eyes sparkled, pale green in the light of the setting sun. ~ G.M.T. Schuilling

Giving the same value to fiction as to fact in the interest of so-called fairness is to mislead the American people and the press has become party to that. ~ Joe Wilson

A female dragon's tail is of the utmost importance to her. Male dragons find them irresistible. After all where do you think the term 'Getting some tail' came from? ~ Sully Tarnish

Are you imperfect, romantically irrational, ridiculously fearless, and utterly illogical? You're my ideal reader, friend, partner. I'm your fan. ~ Brook Tesla

How often do you ignore a dream, dismiss it as fantasy and then see echoes of the dream around you the following day? What if a dream were the forewarning of what will become your reality; if you are being told within the world of a dream what may occur in the near or distant future, but your mind mangles the truth and information so much that you discard it as fiction? ~ Samantha Robertson

Fantasy is storytelling with the beguiling power to transform the impossible into the imaginable, and to reveal our own "real" world in a fresh and truth-bearing light. ~ Leonard S. Marcus

I wasn't sure what was worse: being oblivious or living within reality. (Eric) ~ Shannon A. Thompson

In fiction, too, after the death of Cooper the main tendency for nearly a generation was away from the conquest of new borders to the closer cultivation, east of the Mississippi, of ground already marked. ~ Carl Clinton Van Doren

In August 2008, the General Accountability Office issued a report. According to this report, two out of every three corporations in the United States paid no Federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005. ~ Bernie Sanders

In retrospect, 'Pulp Fiction' isn't just the template for everything Tarantino has done but the yardstick by which everything else he does is measured one way or another. ~ Steve Erickson

In recent decades, Ireland in general and Dublin in particular, have been very fortunate in the quality of the historical attention they have received. During the extensive research required to write this book, I have been privileged to work with some of Ireland's most distinguished scholars, who have generously shared their knowledge with me and corrected my texts. Their kind contributions are mentioned in the Acknowledgements. Thanks to the scholarly work of the last quarter century, there has been a reevaluation of certain aspects of Ireland's history; and as a result, the story that follows may contain a number of surprises for many readers. I have provided a few additional notes in the Afterword at the end of this volume for those curious to know more. ~ Edward Rutherfurd

Fear devours the soul. You don't have to let it consume yours. ~ Hannah Heath

She longed to hide beneath every drop of water in the sea. ~ Jessica Marie Baumgartner

A moment of peril is often also a moment of open-hearted kindness and affection. We are thrown off our guard by the general agitation of our feelings, and betray the intensity of those which, at more tranquil periods, our prudence at least conceals, if it cannot altogether suppress them. ~ Walter Scott

Following your own star means isolation, not knowing where to go, having to find out a completely new way for yourself instead of just going on the trodden path everybody else runs along. That's why there's always been a tendency in humans to project the uniqueness and the greatness of their own inner self onto outer personalities and become the servants, the devoted servants, admirers, and imitators of outer personalities. It is much easier to admire a great personality and become a pupil or follower of a guru or a religious prophet, or an admirer of a big, official personality - a President of the United States - or live your life for some military general whom you admire. That is much easier than following your own star. (p. 71) ~ Marie-Louise Von Franz

In non-fiction, I found John Gardner's two writing books to be tremendously helpful. ~ Ann Leckie

Hemingway suggested you write the truest sentence you know. I say write the falsest one you don't know. This is fiction. ~ Jarod Kintz

It was hard to describe what she had sensed, but it had been distinct and clear, like the shape of a leafless tree against the sky, or a crow flying across a ploughed field. She hesitated to close her eyes again, for it had risen up close to her face like something appalling. ~ Jessica Rydill

As for the new world war that's waiting in the womb of time, a healthily developed foetus, who can say what will spark it, how destructive it will be? We've already played at this war in film and fiction, indicating that there's a part of us that desperately wants it. What nonsense writers and filmmakers talk when they say that their terrible visions are meant as a warning. [ ... ] It's sheer wish fulfillment. War ... is a culture pattern. It's a legitimate mode of cultural transmission ... ~ Anthony Burgess

I shall speak facts; but some will say I deal in fiction. ~ Ovid

Misfortunes, untoward events, lay open, disclose the skill of a general, while success conceals his weakness, his weak points. ~ Horace

Sinking into fiction: the if-only of if-onlys. ~ David Arnold

People said it because other people said it. They did not know why it was being said and heard everywhere. They did not give or ask for reasons. 'Reason,' Dr. Pritchett had told them, 'is the most naive of all superstitions.'
'The source of public opinion?' said Claude Slagenhop in a public radio speech. 'There is no source of public opinion. It is spontaneously general. It is a reflex of the collective instinct of the collective mind. ~ Ayn Rand

Writing fiction is ... an endless and always defeated effort to capture some quality of life without killing it. ~ Rose Wilder Lane

This is what a castle sounded like when it died, and he knew he would never forget it. ~ Steven Poore

All affected can accept the consequences and the side effects that [the norm's] general observance can be anticipated to have for the satisfaction of everyone's interests, and the consequences are preferred to those of known alternative possibilities for regulation. ~ Jurgen Habermas

Draft-dodging is what chicken-hawks do best. Dick Cheney, Glenn Beck, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh (this capon claimed he had a cyst on his fat ass), Newt Gingrich, former Attorney General John Ashcroft - he received seven deferments to teach business education at Southwest Missouri State - pompous Bill O'Reilly, Jeb Bush, hey, throw in John Wayne - they were all draft-dodgers. Not a single one of these mouth-breathing, cowardly, and meretricious buffoons fought for his country. All plumped for deferments. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani? Did not serve. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney? Did not serve in the military. (He served the Mormon Church on a thirty-month mission to France.) Former Senator Fred Thompson? Did not serve. Former President Ronald Reagan? Due to poor eyesight, he served in a noncombat role making movies for the Army in southern California during WWII. He later seems to have confused his role as an actor playing a tail gunner with the real thing. Did Rahm Emanuel serve? Yes, he did during the Gulf War 1991 - in the Israeli Army. John Boehner did not serve, not a fucking second. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY? Not a minute! Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-MS? Avoided the draft. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-AZ - did not serve. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair John Cornyn, R-TX - did not serve. Former Senate Republican Policy Committee Chair John Ensign, R-NV? Did not serve. Jack Kemp? Dan Quayle? Never serve ~ Alexander Theroux

And English society was was not exactly welcoming to these rich newcomers: Imagine Kim Kardashian marrying Prince Henry today and you get the general idea of the suspicion and disdain that the Americans encountered. ~ Daisy Goodwin

I sometimes wonder what would've happened if I'd entered the competition instead - I'd probably have come nowhere and given up on the whole fiction game. ~ Paul Kane

I'm not a 'long writer' and have never wanted to write a novel or even a novella. Poetry, like flash fiction, provides a readily accessible canvas to play with. Whether to express an emotion or share a vignette, these forms are often interchangeable. ~ Marge Simon

There it was. His woman. Laying it out for him. Giving him truth and making him feel like he was the luckiest man on earth. ~ Christine Feehan

To give herself a measure of credible autonomy, she had decided to invent a husband. Then, in a subsequent flash of inspiration, she had just as quickly killed him off. ~ Tracy Anne Warren

The more insight I get, the more scared I get of women in general. ~ Dan Byrd

I try to walk around without being noticed but I can't help attracting attention with my pink Mohawk, black clothing and steel toes, and often I'm with Holly and we're both tall and arrogant. ~ Jo Treggiari

The wonderful thing about writing fiction is that no one is stopping you. There's no one saying, 'You can't do that.' ~ Rebecca Stead