Dave Itzkoff Quotes

As a novelist, I ask of myself only that I tell the truth and that I tell it beautifully.

I write fiction and I'm told it's autobiography, I write autobiography and I'm told it's fiction, so since I'm so dim and they're so smart, let them decide what it is or it isn't.

Writing a novel is easier than writing a memoir; you are not constrained by the truth.

What novels do that biographies don't is get at truths by penetrating the facts, by going deeper to what's underneath fact, through invention.

A memoir is always the most authentic telling of a situation, but a novel gets to different places.

Autobiographical fiction is very tricky.

Those who have been writing literature have not been writing life.

This is why fiction is an art, and life is not - how much more affecting is the lie than the truth.

If people call my book an actor's memoir I will be very upset. I can't bear anything too literal, so it has elements of truth and elements of fiction sitting side by side.

I talk about things that happened in my life. Now, do I embellish? Absolutely. Come on, we all do it. It makes for a better story. But it always comes from a germ of truth.

Thus, in a real sense, I am constantly writing autobiography, but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility.

Use your imagination. Trust me, your lives are not interesting. Don't write them down.

Of all forms of fiction, autobiography is the most gratuitous.

There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.

Fiction becomes a weird way to countenance yourself and to tell the truth instead of being a way to escape yourself or present yourself in a way you figure you will be maximally likable.

I'm used to writing songs and songs-I can fill em up with symbolism and metaphors. When you write a book (Chronicles, Vol. 1), you gotta tell the truth, and it can't be misinterpreted.

Our stories about our own lives are a form of fiction, I began to see and become more insistent as we grow older, even as we try to make them come out in some other way.

Every fiction has its base in fact.

The truth doesn't always make a good story, does it?

Fiction intended to please, should resemble truth as much as possible.

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

What's the use of stories that aren't even true?

There is no such thing as too ordinary to write about, whether that's life or a scene in a novel. What's interesting to people, whether it's memoir or fiction, is the truth.

All stories are true,” Skarpi said. “But this one really happened, if that’s what you mean.” He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. “More or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.

A myth is a lie that conveys a truth.