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1b5f450 Books do pretend ...but squeezed in between is even more that is true--without what you may call the lies, the pages would be too light for the truth, you see? fiction literature reading truth Matthew Pearl
79cec82 Grayson: Fiction is just a lie anyway. Brianna: But it's not - it's a different kind of truth - it would be your truth at the time of the writing, wouldn't it? author-quotes authors fiction fiction-writing fictional fictional-truth writing Nora Roberts
171d740 The entire history of mankind is problem solving, or science fiction swallowing ideas, digesting them, and excreting formulas for survival. You can't have one without the other. No fantasy, no reality. No studies concerning loss, no gain. No imagination, no will. No impossible dreams: No possible solutions. fiction imagination science science-fiction Ray Bradbury
a1fa054 He felt as if he had left a stage behind and many actors. He felt as if he had left the great seance and all the murmuring ghosts. He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new. reality rebirth dystopian dystopian-fiction escape-from-reality fahrenheit-451 fiction ray-bradbury Ray Bradbury
47e5bec Other than along certain emotional tangents there was little in the book that felt as if it had actually been lived. It was a fiction produced by someone who knew only fictions, The Tempest as written by isolate Miranda, raised on the romances in her father's library. fiction movies writing Michael Chabon
c13e756 Galinda didn't see the verdant world through the glass of the carriage; she saw her own reflection instead. She had the nearsightedness of youth. She reasoned that because she was beautiful she was significant, though what she signified, and to whom, was not clear yet...She was, after all, on her way to Shiz because she was smart. But there was more than one way to be smart. fiction maguire selfishness smart wicked young youth Gregory Maguire
1ddc560 I don't put much stock in remembering things. Being able to forget is a superior skill. divakaruni fiction houston immigrant-fiction indian indian-american mothers-and-daughters novel Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
9a7b9bc I actually felt awed by the remote possibilities of the person liked ever liking you back a corresponding amount. fiction marisha-pessl possibilities relationships romance the-odds Marisha Pessl
ae047b4 Shared emotions experienced by two souls,empathy on unequivocal level which Davey believed would change entire species of mankind if only secret of empathy could be telepathically shared with humanity,one soul after another, until every soul understood true meaning of love. chakras christina-westover empathy fiction humanity jack-kerouac love photography poetry san-francisco soul telepathy Christina Westover
288e0f2 "Help me out," I pleaded. "You've left me alone to deal with this situation, and now we're being dealt the consequences." I swore I heard Tom growl. I actually pulled the phone from my ear to stare at it to make sure it hadn't turned into a tiny lion." -- fantasy fiction gabriella-moretti humor joseph-carter keepers novella timeless-series tom-morris ya young-adult Laura Kreitzer
6acd669 Ebb and flow, ebb and flow, our lives. Is that why we're fascinated by the steadfastness of stars? The water reaches my calves. I begin the story of the Pleiades, women transformed into birds so Swift and bright that no man could snare them. divakaruni fiction immigrant-experience indian-american indian-authors mothers-and-daughters novel women-s-fiction Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
5e52bf1 "This was real life, not a book. And in fiction legacy life real someday Danielle Steele
407a066 How scary and sudden the shift from Living to Dead. death fiction living scary shift sudden transition Marisha Pessl
f33318a Would it be possible, he wondered, to stand up before the world and with the utmost conviction spew out lies and nonsense? To say that windmills were knights, that a barber's basin was a helmet, that puppets were real people? Would it be possible to persuade others to agree with what he said, even though they did not believe him? In other words, to what extent would people tolerate blasphemies if they gave them amusement? The answer is obvious, isn't it? To any extent. For the proof is that we still read the book. It remains highly amusing to us. And that's finally all anyone wants out of a book--to be amused. fiction reading Paul Auster
c0fd80c You may ask, why not simply call this literature Christian? Unfortunately, the word Christian is no longer reliable. It has come to mean anyone with a golden heart. And a golden heart would be a positive interference in the writing of fiction. christian-literature fiction fiction-writing Flannery O'Connor
702e2ae "You have seven writers in your basement?" Donald nods, signing, "They like it here. There's a poet, a couple of novelists, an opera librettist, an essay writer . . . . They don't usually make much trouble." fiction hotel-angeline susan-wiggs writers writing Susan Wiggs
607a63a But believe it or not, I really do like to read. I don't think anyone can ever pull the wool over your eyes if you stay prayed up and read. Frederick Douglass said that no man can be a slave if he has knowledge. brandi-bates fiction frederick-douglass knowledge los-angeles marcel remains-to-be-seen urban wisdom Brandi L. Bates
fdb9791 "But you do believe, don't you," Rose implored him, "you think it's true?" "Of course it's true," the Boy said. "What else could there be?" he went scornfully on. "Why," he said, "it's the only thing that fits. These atheists, they don't know nothing. Of course there's Hell. Flames and damnation," he said with his eyes on the dark shifting water and the lightning and the lamps going out above the black struts of the Palace Pier, "torments." "And Heaven too," Rose said with anxiety, while the rain fell interminably on. "Oh, maybe," the Boy said, "maybe." fiction religion Graham Greene
b0aef79 Fiction shows us the past as well as the present moment in mortal light; it is an art served by the indelibility of our memory, and one empowered by a sharp and prophetic awareness of what is ephemeral. It is by the ephemeral that our feeling is so strongly aroused for what endures, or strives to endure. fiction Eudora Welty
a0ca566 ...we haven't had any accidents for months now...Everything on that island is perfectly fine. fiction humor jurassic-park Michael Crichton
93d6f8f It is sometimes the minor, not the major, characters in a novel who hold the author's affection longest. It may be that one loses affection for the major characters because they suck off so much energy as one pushes them through their lives. fiction writing-craft Larry McMurtry
fcdf7b2 [Nathan] wasn't blindly obsessed with a possession. He wasn't crazy. He was a hero--a father who'd risked his life to rescue his son. courageous fatherhood fiction Randy Alcorn
c72d43b "Why have you given your life to books, TC? Dull, dull, dull! The memoirs are bad enough, but all that ruddy fiction! Hero goes on a journey, stranger comes to town, somebody wants something, they get it or they don't, will is pitted against will. "Admire me, for I am a metaphor." fiction David Mitchell
55f96b2 Don't touch me. Don't tell me how beautiful my eyes are, how soft my hair is, how you love to hear my voice. Don't. Don't pretend you are falling in love with me. I know you are lying, and every word you say hurts even more. Let us just be friends, if we can start there. Can't we? Can't we at least be friends? Get to know each other a little? Before the wedding, and the bedding, when I will have to take you as my lord and husband? empire fiction historical-fic kingdom love marie-victoria marriage prince princess royalty teens the-ring-and-the-crown ya melissa de la cruz
1a5f4c1 What is the nature of life? Life is lines of dominoes falling. One thing leads to another, and then another, just like you'd planned. But suddenly a Domino gets skewed, events change direction, people dig in their heels, and you're faced with a situation that you didn't see coming, you who thought you were so clever. divakaruni fiction immigrant-fiction indian-american love mothers-and-daughters novel relationships women-s-books Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
fa71b63 "When people pose the question, are you "coxom", Tom Conrad? I like to pose a question back at them: Is J.K. Rowling actually a witch? Is Thomas Harris the no. 1 serial killer in the the US, did Yann Martell really spend a lifetime eating pie? Of course, as far as I know J.K. Rowling is not a witch, but instead is a rather lovely and talented writer. As for that Thomas Harris (equally talented), I very much suspect he isn't actually a serial killer at all, or if he is, he's involved in the biggest case of double bluff... ever! As for Yann Martell, well, as everyone with half a brain knows his book is actually concerned with a mathematical constant, so ignore the dumb pie joke. Hm :/" fiction fiction-and-reality indie-authors jk-rowling no-1-serial-killer yann-martell Tom Conrad
d1e8f95 "I had this guy's file pulled this morning, along with the rest of your neighbors. His name is Desperado." Pause. A few seconds passed. He was waiting for my reaction. "Did you say Desperado?" I couldn't stop the snort of laughter that bubbled to the surface. "Yeah," the Director confirmed. "He changed his name when he turned eighteen. It was Melvin." I was still laughing. "'Cause Desperado is so much better than Melvin." fantasy fiction humor joseph-carter keepers novella timeless-series tom-morris ya Laura Kreitzer
2e215a8 Then someone within closed the door, shutting Norah out into the howling dust of the night. The clouds parted briefly to reveal the full moon's cold eye, then closed again. Wind seared over the pavilion's double roof, its voice rising to a shriek. Distantly, among the maze of walls, came the frenzied barking of hundreds of tiny dogs. As she drifted towards wakefulness, Norah could not tell whether it was the wind that she heard just at the end, or whether, within the dark hall, the girl had begun to scream. fiction mystery suspense Barbara Hambly
4f99864 Ho scoperto una cosa inestimabile in questo viaggio durato un anno intero, cioe che ognuno di noi nasce con un destino: salvare una persona, almeno una. E l'unico dettaglio gia scritto della nostra esistenza ed e un compito inconscio. A volte non ce ne rendiamo nemmeno conto. Non sappiamo calcolare quanto sia determinante essere li in quel momento per qualcuno, non ne capiamo l'importanza. Quel qualcuno, pero, non ci scordera mai. Non dimentichera che lo abbiamo afferrato, aspettato, ascoltato. Comunque andra la mia vita, so che mi ricordero di Dario e Lore. Per sempre. Loro sono la colata d'oro massiccio che ha messo insieme tutti i miei frantumi. fiction friendship narrativa new-adult young-adult Giorgia Penzo
2df8242 Siradan insan uygarligin lanetidir. crime fiction psycology John Fowles
ddf525b "Stories become great by hacking your brain. Nothing that happens in fiction matters. The people in fiction are fictional so their triumphs and tragedies have literally no consequence. The death of the yogurt you doomed to a fiery death in your gut acid this morning is finitely more tragic than the "deaths" of Romeo and Juliet. The yogurt was alive and then it died. Romeo and Juliet never lived in the first place." fiction storieses Cory Doctorow
f285331 Energy manipulation took place completely in mind,same way believing in telepathy caused telepathic abilities to grow STRONGER. art chakras christina-westover energy-manipulation fiction imagination inspirational jack-kerouac literature poetry san-francisco telepathist telepathy Christina Westover
429e5af Reading yourself as a fiction as well as a fact is the only way to keep the narrative open - the only way to stop the story from running away under its own momentum, often towards an ending no one wants. end fiction life reading stories Jeanette Winterson
ee06caa Every healthy person at some period must feed on fiction as well as fact; because fact is a thing which the world gives to him, whereas fiction is a thing which he gives to the world. fiction literature G.K. Chesterton
28bbdd4 As I pen these words to leave a lasting record, I wonder myself where it all began. fiction ghosts girls handwritten lasting pen prologue second-sight truth where Richard Peck
119324c Lucinda might sneak from her own house at midnight to place a wager somewhere else, but she dared not touch the pack that lay in her own sideboard. She knew how passionate he had become about his 'weakness.' She dared not even ask him how it was he had reversed his opinions on the matter. But, oh, how she yearned to discuss it with him, how much she wished to deal a hand on a grey wool blanket. There would be no headaches then, only this sweet consummation of their comradeship. But she said not a word. And although she might have her 'dainty' shoes tossed to the floor, have her bare toes quite visible through her stockings, have a draught of sherry in her hand, in short appear quite radical, she was too timid, she thought, too much a mouse, to reveal her gambler's heart to him. She did not like this mouselike quality. As usual, she found herself too careful, too held in. Once she said: 'I wish I had ten sisters and a big kitchen to laugh in.' Her lodger frowned and dusted his knees. She thought: He is as near to a sister as I am likely to get, but he does not understand. She would have had a woman friend so they could brush each other's hair, and just, please God, put aside this great clanking suit of ugly armor. She kept her glass dreams from him, even whilst she appeared to talk about them. He was an admiring listener, but she only showed him the opaque skin of her dreams--window glass, the price of transporting it, the difficulties with builders who would not pay their bills inside six months. He imagined this was her business, and of course it was, but all the things she spoke of were a fog across its landscape which was filled with such soaring mountains she would be embarrassed to lay claim to them. Her true ambition, the one she would not confess to him, was to build something Extraordinary and Fine from glass and cast iron. A conservatory, but not a conservatory. Glass laced with steel, spun like a spider web--the idea danced around the periphery of her vision, never long enough to be clear. When she attempted to make a sketch, it became diminished, wooden, inelegant. Sometimes, in her dreams, she felt she had discovered its form, but if she had, it was like an improperly fixed photograph which fades when exposed to daylight. She was wise enough, or foolish enough, to believe this did not matter, that the form would present itself to her in the end. fiction Peter Carey
bde9bde Who wanted to make lemonade from lemons, when you could make perfectly good lemonade grenades? fiction humor Melissa de la Cruz
34ad71a Can you see the power emotion has to distort out outlook? Makes you wonder, did you have a bad day, or did you make it a bad day? fantasy-fiction fantasy-series fiction young-adult Brandon Mull
8d5ece0 The real Julian Wells didn't die in a cherry-red convertible, overdosing on a highway in Joshua Tree while a choir soared over the sound track. fiction reality writing Bret Easton Ellis
69f6c00 "Taut, intelligent, and intense suspense that is deeply human."--Mark Greaney, New York Times Bestselling Author of Gunmetal Gray "Exciting and well-layered....David Bell is a master storyteller with a sure hand at crafting characters you feel for and stories you relish."--Allen Eskens, USA Today Bestselling Author of The Life We Bury "A tense and twisty suspense novel about the dark secrets that lie buried within a community and a father who can save his daughter only by uncovering them. Will leave parents wondering just how well they truly know their children."--Hester Young, author of The Gates of Evangeline and The Shimmering Road "A gripping, immersive tour-de-force full of twists and turns. BRING HER HOME kept me flipping the pages late into the night. Don't expect to sleep until you've finished reading this book. I could not put it down!"--A. J. Banner, bestselling author of The Good Neighbor and The Twilight Wife "In David Bell's riveting BRING HER HOME, the unthinkable is only the beginning. From there, the story races through stunning twists all the way to its revelation, without letting its heart fall away in the action. Intense, emotional, and deeply satisfying. This one will keep you up late into the night. Don't miss it!"--Jamie Mason, author of Three Graves Full and Monday's Lie "Spellbinding and pulse-raising, BRING HER HOME hooked me from the first sentence and surprised me until the final pages. Sharply written and richly observed, this book is about the secrets we keep, the mysteries that keep us, and the lengths a father will go to for the daughter he loves. David Bell is a masterful storyteller who has perfected the art of suspense in BRING HER HOME."--Sarah Domet, author of The Guineveres" book david-bell domestic-suspense fiction novels summer-read suspense thrillers David J. Bell
d6e8577 The costumes help. They make it less real, disguise what it really is both for the actors and for the people who'll see it on the screen. It's like the people who read and because it's in Russia they can say, 'Oh, that's not my pain they're talking about.' And Chris is tough. She goes from one thing to the next and doesn't worry about the past. When a cat sits mere purring on your lap, you know for a fact she isn't thinking about her former owner; she's thinking about her dinner. That's Chris. fiction mystery suspense Barbara Hambly
ee0fe07 Even if readers claim that they 'take it all with a grain of salt', they do not really. They yearn to believe, and they believe, because believing is easier than disbelieving, and because anything which is written down is likely to be 'true in a way'. façades fiction readers reading writing Iris Murdoch
70acdc9 Come, kiss me sweet, and then let us return to bed, for I am tired, and I would sleep. fiction Christopher Paolini
b1e0876 That's what it means to be out of your mind. To let yourself be carried away by a dream. To give it room, let it grow wild and thick, until it overruns you. fiction literature Anne Hébert
42b2869 In our choices lie our fate fiction inspirational Cornelia Funke
fe28dca "Life has to end," she said. "Love doesn't." fiction heven Mitch Albom
8f2191b "Con las palabras todo cuidado es poco, mudan de opinion como las personas"." fiction humankind literature-communication opinion words José Saramago
0add7f9 It is generally supposed, and not least by Catholics, that the Catholic who writes fiction is out to use fiction to prove the truth of the Faith, or at the least, to prove the existence of the supernatural. He may be. No one certainly can be sure of his low motives except as they suggest themselves in his finished work, but when the finished work suggests that pertinent actions have been fraudulently manipulated or overlooked or smothered, whatever purposes the writer started out with have already been defeated. What the fiction writer will discover, if he discovers anything at all, is that he himself cannot move or mold reality in the interests of an abstract truth. The writer learns, perhaps more quickly than the reader, to be humble in the face of what-is. What-is is all he has to do with; the concrete is his medium; and he will realize eventually that fiction can transcend its limitations only by staying within them. fiction fiction-writing writing writing-fiction Flannery O'Connor
88630ba It is when the individual's faith is weak, not strong, that he will be afraid of an honest fictional representation of life; and when there is a tendency to compartmentalize the spiritual and make it resident in a certain type of life only, the supernatural is apt gradually to be lost. faith fiction supernatural Flannery O'Connor
3e14608 I don't recall that when I was in high school or college, any novel was ever presented to me to study as a novel. In fact, I was well on the way to getting a Master's degree in English before I really knew what fiction was, and I doubt if I would ever have learned then, had I not been trying to write it. I believe that it's perfectly possible to run a course of academic degrees in English and to emerge a seemingly respectable Ph.D. and still not know how to read fiction. college english-classes english-degrees fiction reading Flannery O'Connor
3ad1027 Early in 1967 Highsmith's agent told her why her books did not sell in paperback in America. It was, said Patricia Schartle Myrer, because they were 'too subtle', combined with the fact that none of her characters were likeable. 'Perhaps it is because I don't like anyone,' Highsmith replied. 'My last books may be about animals'. fiction likeability misanthropy sold subtle writing Andrew Wilson
1d40ab1 Irma, she said. But I had started to walk away. I heard her say some more things but by then I had yanked my skirt up and was running down the road away from her and begging the wind to obliterate her voice. She wanted to live with me. She missed me. She wanted me to come back home. She wanted to run away. She was yelling all this stuff and I wanted so badly for her to shut up. She was quiet for a second and I stopped running and turned around once to look at her. She was a thimble-sized girl on the road, a speck of a living thing. Her white-blond hair flew around her head like a small fire and it was all I could see because everything else about her blended in with the countryside. He offered you a what? she yelled. An espresso! I yelled back. It was like yelling at a shorting wire or a burning bush. What is it? she said. Coffee! I yelled. Irma, can I come and live-- I turned around again and began to run. fiction funny inspirational literature novel Miriam Toews
0963391 "Halfway to the house Stan stopped and turned to Jane. He put his hands on her shoulders and drew her toward him. "I'm glad we're going steady," he whispered. "So am I." dating fiction fifteen girl love romance teen Beverly Cleary
58c91fb "Well, I didn't really know what to say. So maybe I should say that I have thought about you and I like you, I like seeing you, I care for you and maybe I love you too. And the next time if you tell me you love me, I'll--" She stopped. fiction love Colm Tóibín
9df461c There is a further trouble; no matter how meticulous the scientist, he or she cannot be separated from the experiment itself. Impossible to detach the observer from the observed. A great deal of scientific truth has later turned out to be its observer's fiction. It is irrational to assume that this is no longer the case. fiction science Jeanette Winterson
f5aa04b The child came to a stop beside her mother and stared up at her face as if she had never seen it before. It was the face of the new misery she felt, but on her mother it looked old and it looked as if it might have belonged to anybody, a Negro or a European or to Powell himself. The child turned her head quickly, and past the Negroe's ambling figures she could see the column of smoke rising and widening unchecked inside the granite line of trees. She stood taut, listening, and could just catch in the distance a few wild high shrieks of joy as if the prophets were dancing in the fiery furnace, in the circle the angel had cleared for them. fiction short-stories southern Flannery O'Connor
ecb1e9c God don't give out certain. fiction thriller Jeffery Deaver
90e8e86 "The team leader, Dr. Joe Spagnola, gave him a quick look as well. It pretty much said, "You maggot, if you leave one of my men behind, don't ever go to sleep because I'll be coming for you." At least Barry interpreted the look that way." fiction ghostwalker-series ghostwalkers paranormal-romance romance-series romantic-suspense team teamwork Christine Feehan
993401b "The formula for this brand of "historical" writing is to put the public on the inside; to let them feel the palpitations of royal and imperial lovers and to overhear their lispings and cooings. It can be argued that a man has to live somewhere, and that if his own time is so cut up by rapid change that he can't find a cranny big enough to relax in, then he must betake himself to the past. That is certainly one motive in the production of historical romance, from Sir Walter Scott to Thornton Wilder. But mainly this formula works as a means of flattery. The public is not only invited inside but encouraged to believe that there is nothing inside that differs from its own thoughts and feelings. This reassurance is provided by endowing historical figures with the sloppiest possible minds. The great are "humanized" by being trivial. The debunking school began by making the great appear as corrupt, or mean and egotistical. The "humanizers" have merely carried on to make them idiotic. "Democratic" vanity has reached such proportions that it cannot accept as human anything above the level of cretinous confusion of mind of the type popularized by Hemingway's heroes. Just as the new star must be made to appear successful by reason of some freak of fortune, so the great, past or present, must be made to seem so because of the most ordinary qualities, to which fortune adds an unearned trick or idea." -- fiction historical-fiction nostalgia past past-and-present rapid-change relaxation time truth Marshall McLuhan
9056146 "Playdate. (n) A Date arranged by adults in which young children are brought together, usually at the home of one of them, for the premeditated purpose of "playing". A feature of contemporary American upscale suburban life in which "neighborhoods" have ceased to exist, and children no longer trail in and out of "neighbor childrens" houses or play in "backyards". In the absence of sidewalks in newer "gated" coummunities, children cannot "walk" to playdates but must be driven by adults, usually mothers. A "playdate" is never initiated by the players (i.e., children), but only by their mothers. In American-suburban social climbing through playdating, this is the chapter you've been awaiting." fiction literature mystery novels Joyce Carol Oates
aa51218 "Freaky kids like us can't ever be normal- Tyler says smugly- Our generation is some new kind of "evolutionary development", my shrink says- "Normal" is just "average", not cool. My latest diagnosis is "A.P.M", Acute Premature Melancholia", usually an affliction of late middle age, they think is genetic since Ty Senoir has had it all his life, too. You look if you might be A.P.M, too, Sky: that kind of pissed-off mopey look in your face like you swallowed something really gross and can't spit it out." fiction literature Joyce Carol Oates
4e46616 "For in America this season is decreed "family season". (Eat your hearts out, you pitiable loners who don't have families!) Melancholy as Thanksgiving is, the Christmas-New year's season is far worse and lasts far longer, providing rich fund of opportunities for self-medicating, mental collapse, suicide and public mayhem with firearms. In fact it might be argued that the Christmas-New year's season which begins abruptly after Thanksgiving is now the core-sason of American life itself, the meaning of American life,, the brute existencial point of it. How without families must envy us who bask in parental love, in the glow of yule-logs burning in fireplaces stoked by our daddie's robust pokers, we who are stuffed to bursting with our mummie's frantic holiday cooking; how you wish you could be us, pampered/protected kids tearing expensive foil wrappings off too many packages to count, gathered about the Christmas tree on Christmas morning as Mummy gently chided: "Skyler! Bliss! Show Daddy and Mummy what you've just opened, please! And save the little cards, so you know who gave such nice things to you" fiction literature Joyce Carol Oates
8c5f476 Kay could see how Michael stood to receive their homage. He reminded her of statues in Rome, statues of those Roman emperors of antiquity, who, by divine right, held the power of life and death over their fellow men. One hand was on his hip, the profile of his face showed a cold proud power, his body was carelessly, arrogantly at ease, weight resting on one foot slightly behind the other. The caporegimes stood before him. In that moment Kay knew that everything Connie had accused Michael of was true. She went back into the kitchen and wept. fiction power Mario Puzo
d0b5861 And now the bride begins to move. Little mechanical doll, clinging to her husband's arm, climbing into the carriage. Her white silk stocking, her elegant shoe. fiction literature Anne Hébert
5278a92 There's an immense dramatic possibility in describing that universe. The books, for me, were an enormous relief in that sense of how they were written to allow primary emotion, elemental emotion, to matter enormously but to give the thing an extraordinary flow so you don't notice at what point that you're actually overwhelmed by this. There's no showiness, at all. It's the opposite of showiness. I think, if it was a painting, it could be very grey abstract, almost, with some lines and very, very beautiful. But you wouldn't have a notion of where the beauty was. (Talking about the short stories of Alistair MacLeod, who he discovered while working on The Modern Library.) fiction short-stories Colm Tóibín
eace725 "In Woolrich's crime fiction there is a gradual development from pulp to noir. The earlier a story, the more likely it stresses pulp elements: one-dimensional macho protagonists, preposterous methods of murder, hordes of cardboard gangsters, dialogue full of whiny insults, blistering fast action. But even in some of his earliest crime stories one finds aspects of noir, and over time the stream works itself pure. In mature Woolrich the world is an incomprehensible place where beams happen to fall, and are predestined to fall, and are toppled over by malevolent powers; a world ruled by chance, fate and God the malign thug. But the everyday life he portrays is just as terrifying and treacherous. The dominant economic reality is the Depression, which for Woolrich usually means a frightened little guy in a rundown apartment with a hungry wife and children, no money, no job, and desperation eating him like a cancer. The dominant political reality is a police force made up of a few decent cops and a horde of sociopaths licensed to torture and kill, whose outrages are casually accepted by all concerned, not least by the victims. The prevailing emotional states are loneliness and fear. Events take place in darkness, menace breathes out of every corner of the night, the bleak cityscape comes alive on the page and in our hearts. ("Introduction")" cornell-woolrich crime fiction noir police pulp the-great-depression Francis M. Nevins
538fa30 "As if somehow irony," she recaps for Maxine, "as practiced by a giggling mincing fifth column, actually brought on the events of 11 September, by keeping the country insufficiently serious -- weakening its grip on 'reality.' So all kinds of make-believe--forget the delusional state the country's in already--must suffer as well. Everything has to be literal now." "Yeah, the kids are even getting it at school." Ms. Cheung, an English teacher who if Kugelblitz were a town would be the neighborhood scold, has announced that there shall be no more fictional reading assignments. Otis is terrified, Ziggy less so. Maxine will walk in on them watching Rugrats or reruns of Rocko's Modern Life, and they holler by reflex, "Don't tell Ms. Cheung!" "You notice," Heidi continues, "how 'reality' programming is suddenly all over the cable, like dog shit? Of course, it's so producers shouldn't have to pay real actors scale. But wait! There's more! Somebody needs this nation of starers believing they're all wised up at last, hardened and hip to the human condition, freed from the fictions that led them so astray, as if paying attention to made-up lives was some form of evil drug abuse that the collapse of the towers cured by scaring everybody straight again." fiction literalism reality-tv Thomas Pynchon
af9d440 Find my weak points, but more importantly, find yours. fiction mystery mystery-novels suspense Rene Gutteridge
e45c1a6 Forgiving himself came easy to him. His, he'd come to realize, was a forgiving nature. fiction human-nature humanity new-york-city short-stories Lawrence Block
75b9714 It has been said that narrative worlds are always little worlds, because they do not constitute a maximal and complete state of things. In this sense narrative worlds are parasitical, because, if the alternative properties are not specified, we take for granted the properties that hold good in the real world. fiction Umberto Eco
84cf8c2 Prayer or not, I want to believe that, despite all evidence to the contrary, it is possible for anyone to find that one special person. That person to spend Christmas with or grow old with or just take a nice silly walk in Central Park with. fiction romance Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
fb0c268 "not all who wander are lost a poem called "Wander, wander, wandering meandering, the urge to roam, to dance, to fly, to be, the search for free, the need to see to go to find to search to do, my thirsts so easily quenched so close to home and yours so grand, so elegant, so marvellous, climbing mountaintops and elephants and tiger hunts and dancing bears and far off stars and trips to mars and all of it so wild, so vast, so free, as you go wander, wander, wandering, and then the best part of all when, satisfied, complete, and happy now, you wander slowly fiction travel Danielle Steel 'wanderlust'
dbac892 Noriega wound up like a baseball pitcher on top of the bed and hurled the small gun, but was low and outside for a ball. His tight-fitting house dress was bunched up high on his chubby thighs, exposing olive drab underwear. I see London, I see France, I see a crazy dictator's underpants! Chase's thoughts raced. espionage fiction literary panama spy thriller Cole Alpaugh
5242a6e People who spent the war in prison camps have written a lot of books about what a bad time they had, she said quietly, staring into the embers. they don't know what it was like, not being in a camp. fiction world-war-2 Nevil Shute
50214de it was so beautiful', he said. 'the Three Pagodas Pass must be one of the loveliest places in the world. you've got this broad valley with the river running down it, and the jungle forest, and the mountains....we used to sit by the river and watch the sun setting behind the mountains, sometimes, and say what a marvellous place it would be to come to for a holiday. however terrible a prison camp may be, it makes a difference if its beautiful. fiction world-war-2 Nevil Shute
34ba20b But inside loss there can be gain, too,like the small silver spider Bela had discovered one dewy morning, curled asleep at the center of a rose. child-narrator divakaruni fiction immigrant-fiction india indian-american mothers-and-daughters novel women-s-fiction Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
9a43d2a You have to believe me without proof. That's what faith is -- believing without proof.' They got up from the bank of stones. It was getting late, the shadows lay cool and lengthened on the grass and the tops of the trees had the stillness around them that means the end of the day and its liquidation in the setting sun. They retraced their steps back to the house where his car was parked, and when they passed through the blighted orchard, he picked up an apple for her and she ate it. She didn't even have to look; she knew it would be whole, without worms or decay. fiction literary-fiction relationships short-stories short-story Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
86334ba Too many words for one book--truth might be stranger than fiction, but it needs a better editor. editor fiction truth writing David Benioff
65a4be1 They stared into the distance as though they were being absorbed into an alternate space-time reality. Perhaps they were. But probably they already had been. fantasy fiction serio-comic Amy Tanner
5787526 We make fiction because we are fiction ... It lived us into being and it lives us still. collective-unconscious consciousness fiction macrocosm microcosm virtual-reality wisdom Russell Hoban
57a6c06 The human heart Is unknowable. But in my birthplace The flowers still smell The same as always. fiction historical-fiction monasticism Rumer Godden
d26e5cd "My nation, as all nations, is becoming a land without peace, without thought, without mind, Madam Abbess. We are suffocating our spirits in commercial and material things. This is not envy," said Mr. Konishi earnestly. "I am a rich man, with much business, so I have succeeded in all these things, but I know that they are empty." fiction historical-fiction monasticism Rumer Godden
ac10e76 There Peter sat in the new sunlight, plaiting the straw for baskets, until he saw the thing he had been taught most to fear advancing silently along the lea of an outcrop of rock. fiction gothic literature peter-and-the-wolf saints-and-strangers Angela Carter
042b098 Many writers, good writers who ought to know better, focus so tightly on the structure demanded by a crime story that they lose track of the fact that they are writing a novel. Accusations of both sensationalism and trivialisation are, alas, often justified. fiction genre genre-fiction technique thriller writing Laurie R. King
affead2 "What do you think about America?" "Everyone always smiles so big! Well--most people. Maybe not so much you. I think it looks stupid." -- fiction literary-fiction literature the-goldfinch Donna Tartt
acf02dc "Would you like to come in?" I said. My hands were sweaty. Inside my chest an ocean heaved and crashed and heaved again. "I would," he said. I saw his Adam's apple jerk as he swallowed. "Thank you." I was distracted by that thank you. We had moved past the language of formality long ago. It was strange to relearn it with each other." divakaruni fiction immigrant-experience immigrant-fiction indian indian-authors love-mothers-and-daughters mothers-and-daughters novel women-s-fiction Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
93171c5 What are we, Charlie's Angels? fiction mystery suspense thriller Terri Blackstock
5b584ca A related point: The job of the imagination, in making a story from experience, may be not to gussy the story up but to tone it down. The fact is, the world is unbelievably strange and human behavior is frequently so weird that no kind of narrative except farce or satire can handle it. The function of the storyteller's imagination sometimes is simply to make it more plausible. fiction life storytelling writing Ursula K. Le Guin
28117f4 The painter and the writer are not just copyists or even illusionists, but through some deeper vision of their subject-matter may become privileged truth tellers. fiction truth Iris Murdoch
5b1ea60 "Thanks to Dashiell Hammett. "He was thin, walked with a stick, and was the only private dick I knew who used the pockets of his sport coat. Maybe that means something, maybe not." Ramone Ramone, 2013" fiction humor mystery Thomas deKooning
db69533 She put on some music. Drum and flute, I think. She played it soft, because it was dreadfully late, a time when all good men and women, or at least the practical ones, had gone to bed. Then she danced for me. fiction immigrant-experience india indian-authors mothers-and-daughters womens-fiction Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
db3018d Fiction is like wrestling with angels-you do not expect to win, but you do expect to come away from the experience changed. fiction reading writing Jane Yolen
3acc391 With every fall of the sun and rise of the moon, I can hear it. The Prophecy. It echoes through the halls of time. It is written on the surface of every star. Even the sun and moon cannot withhold the news of the second coming. I hear it. And I fear it. epic-fantasy fantasy-fiction fiction light moon novel sun young-adult young-adult-fiction Brian A. McBride
239bf45 And with a massive roar the fifth wall comes down and the house of fiction falls, taking Viola and Sunny and Bertie with it. They melt into thin air and disappear. Pouf! alternate-universe ending fiction fifth-wall kate-atkinson twist-ending Kate Atkinson
35d05ac The world was ersatz and actual, forged and faked, by ourselves and unseen others. Daring to attempt to absolutely sort fake from real was a folly that would call down tigers or hiccups to cure us of our recklessness. The effort was doomed, for it too much pointed past the intimate boundaries of our necessary fictions. dreams ersatz fiction jonathan-lethem lies reality Jonathan Lethem
a900628 "According to Mark, it was a custom of the Roman governor during the feast of Passover to release one prisoner to the Jews, anyone for whom they asked. When Pilate asks the crowd which prisoner they would like to have released--Jesus, the preacher and traitor to Rome, or bar Abbas, the insurrectionist and murderer--the crowd demands the release of the insurrectionist and the crucifixion of the preacher. "Why?" Pilate asks, pained at the thought of having to put an innocent Jewish peasant to death. "What evil has he done?" But the crowd shouts all the louder for Jesus's death. "Crucify him! Crucify him!" (Mark 15:1-20). The scene is absolutely nonsensical. Never mind that outside the gospels there exists not a shred of historical evidence for any such Passover custom on the part of any Roman governor. What is truly beyond belief is the portrayal of Pontius Pilate--a man renowned for his loathing of the Jews, his total disregard for Jewish rituals and customs, and his penchant for absentmindedly signing so many execution orders that a formal complaint was lodged against him in Rome--spending even a moment of his time pondering the fate of yet another Jewish rabble-rouser." fiction history pilate Reza Aslan
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