My favorite quotes about writing fiction

Truman Capote was known for embellishing his experiences. When questioned, Capote responded, “Well, if it wasn’t true, that’s the way it should have been.”

In my case, I did not need to embellish the background to the stories I’ve found, where the human spirit must rise above the horrors and scandals that plague our globe. All I needed to fictionalize were the characters and the events. Or, as Tom Clancy said, “the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.”

More of my favorite quotes about writing and reading fiction:

“An unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.” –Ursula K. Le Guin

“Societies never know it, but the war of an artist with his society is a lover’s war, and he does, at his best, what lovers do, whish is to reveal the beloved to himself.” – James Baldwin

“When I want to read a good book, I write one.”
--Benjamin Disraeli

“Story is to human beings what the pearl is to the oyster.”
--Joseph Gold

And then the one whose source is unknown, but it is the one that applies to my writing: “Take a skeleton out of the closet and dance with it.”