Top 1200 Detective Fiction Quotes & Sayings - Page 3

Fiction came quite a while later. I began with short stories and fiction for children.

I'm very strict in my belief that non-fiction should be truthful, and fiction is for invented narratives.

I obviously read and adore traditional fiction. I teach traditional fiction, I also teach all kind of not-so-traditional fiction. And since I'm such a plot buff, and I'm really such a narrative buff, I can't seem to relinquish my - not just reliance - but excitement about those traditional techniques.

Science fiction does not remain fiction for long. And certainly not on the Internet.

There's a fine line between fiction and non-fiction and I think I snorted it somewhere in 1979

I'm a compulsive reader of fiction. I fell in love with novels when I was a teenager. My wife Marilyn and I... our initial friendship began because we are both readers. I've gone to sleep almost every night of my life after having read in a novel for 30 or 40 minutes. I'm a great reader of fiction and much less so of non-fiction.

Historical fiction is simply fiction set in the past, and should be judged as such.

The real origin of science fiction lay in the seventeeth-century novels of exploration in fabulous lands. Therefore Jules Verne's story of travel to the moon is not science fiction because they go by rocket but because of where they go. It would be as much science fiction if they went by rubber band.

I read pretty eclectically - fiction, non-fiction, and poetry - and I've been inspired and influenced by a number of writers.

Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction to suit ourselves.

Some people just don't seem to understand the concept of fiction. It is fiction; it ain't true, folks

It had also been my belief since I started writing fiction that science fiction is never really about the future. When science fiction is old, you can only read it as being pretty much about the moment in which it was written. But it seemed to me that the toolkit that science fiction had given me when I started working had become the toolkit of a kind of literary naturalism that could be applied to an inherently incredible present.

There's no division on my bookshelf between fiction and nonfiction. As far as I'm concerned, fiction is about the truth.

Fantastic fiction covers fantasy, horror and science fiction - and it doesn't get the attention it deserves from the literati.

I don't really read non-fiction, but I have grown up on a steady diet of Wodehouse and, of course, science fiction.

Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.

What I like about non-fiction is that it covers such a huge territory. The best non-fiction is also creative.

I cannot say how strongly I object to people using other people's writing as research. Research is non-fiction, especially for horror, fantasy, science fiction. Do not take your research from other people's fiction. Just don't.

Fiction makes your dreams come true, and, as a writer, fiction allows you to delve into the area of miracles.

As I keep saying, fiction is truth. I think fiction is the truest thing there ever was.

I made up my mind that I will do fiction in films and non-fiction in TV.

I think fiction is a very serious thing, that while it is fiction, it is also a revelation of truth, or facts.

History buffs expect historical background in historical fiction. Mystery readers expect forensics and police procedure in crime fiction. Westerns - gasp - describe the West. Techno-thriller readers expect to learn something about technology from their fiction.

Now, I'm a failed political consultant. But sometimes fiction has a way of capturing people's imagination in a way that non-fiction doesn't. Conservatives typically haven't written much fiction - specifically political thrillers - over the years to educate, inspire and mobilize people on issues of great import, but we ought to.

When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. Then it happens we were in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all around-bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere. Sam Spade

I do think that science fiction ideas are best expressed through visual media like film and TV. Realist literature depicts things that we have seen in life, but science fiction is different: what it depicts exists only in the author's imagination. When it comes to science fiction, the written word is inadequate.

The difference between fiction and nonfiction is that fiction must be absolutely believable.

I don't really see science fiction as fiction. I can imagine colonies on Mars and everything.

Perhaps this is the purpose of all art, all writing, on the murders, fiction and non-fiction: Simply to participate.

If the memoirist is borrowing narrative techniques from fiction, shouldn't the novelist borrow a few tricks from successful non-fiction?

I swing with a lot of torque from non-fiction to fiction, and I really like that place in between.

Really, I've worked my whole adult life at fiction, to try and write fiction.

Comedy is like fictional charm. It's the charm of fiction. Or the charisma of fiction. When you meet somebody who's immediately charismatic, you're attracted to that person. And in fiction it's got to come out in either one of two ways: in the prose itself, and you're hooked immediately because you never want to leave such a colorful and penetrating world. Or, it's simply being a funny writer.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, but usually fiction is just better.

I love 19th century fiction and, in particular, fiction written by and about women.

I'm a big fan of non-fiction, and I am a believer that fact is much more exciting than fiction.

I write both fiction and nonfiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later.

I read anything and everything. Comfort food for my brain is fantasy fiction or science fiction.

I only like non-fiction. After 30 pages of fiction, I think: what nonsense are they trying to write.

What I like about non-fiction is that it covers such a huge territory. The best non-fiction is also creative

I like writing non-fiction - and when you pick a [non-fiction] subject, it saves you the hassle of coming up with a plot.

there simply is no way to describe the past without lying. Our memories are not like fiction. They are fiction.

I will literally read anything, regardless of genre, fiction or non-fiction, as long as it's well written.

There's an imperative to make sure you distinguish fiction from the fact, because if the fact is doing the work, why did you do fiction? And once you raise the question of why - why do fiction? - then you have to answer it in your text as a kind of enactment of the answer.

It's funny because when I was growing up, I was really into science fiction and fantasy as a kid. And, when I first became a screenwriter, I ended up really just doing historical drama and non-fiction based stuff, like Band of Brothers and stuff that didn't get made, but was also non-fiction.

Science fiction is the most important literature in the history of the world, because it's the history of ideas, the history of our civilization birthing itself. ...Science fiction is central to everything we've ever done, and people who make fun of science fiction writers don't know what they're talking about.

It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

I like to read fiction, and I particularly enjoy reading young adult fiction. But I also read children's books, adult books, current authors, and classics, but I like fiction the most.

I read both in French and English and often a couple of books at once, mixing fiction and non-fiction.

And I grew up on a steady diet of science fiction, especially apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fiction.

I read very widely, both non-fiction and fiction, so I don't think there's a single writer who influences me.

Some people just don't seem to understand the concept of fiction. It is fiction; it ain't true, folks.

The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction needs to be credible.

Don't make a big distinction between fiction and non-fiction. These are arbitrary distinctions.

I lay off a lot modern fiction and only rely on living writers for non-fiction work.

I don't like docudramas. Documentaries should not go together with fiction, or half-fiction or quarter-fiction. The two should not go together. They cannot mix.

Crime fiction is the fiction of social history. Societies get the crimes they deserve.

Those who say truth is stranger than fiction have wasted their time on poorly written fiction.

There's an overlap between social-realist fiction and crime fiction - a sweet spot there.

Where radio is different than fiction is that even mediocre fiction needs purpose, a driving question.