Truth and Fiction Quotes

The final belief is to believe in a fiction, which you know to be a fiction, there being nothing else. The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe in it willingly.

Yes, one uses what one knows, but autobiography means something else. I should never be able to write a real autobiography; I always end by falsifying and fictionalizing—I’m a liar, in fact. That means I’m a novelist, after all. I write about what I know.

Everything is autobiographical, and nothing is autobiographical. That's fiction.

Sometimes, fact mixed with fiction so thoroughly that, though no lies were told, it was hard to remember what was strictly true.

Tell the truth, but lead so improbable a life that the truth will never be believed.

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

Not real can tell us about real.

Truth is not always injured by fiction.

The problem is, I can’t tell what’s real anymore, and what’s made up.

I'm interested in non-fiction, but a form of it which is very badly behaved, which doesn't define itself as straight-ahead journalism or memoir. It blurs boundaries, plays fast and loose with the truth - not to be silly, whimsical or lazy, but to get greater purchase on what it feels like to be alive.

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

Think of my movies as heightening our awareness, not confusing the difference between truth and fiction, but heightening our awareness of how confused we can become about what is real.

What is more simple than to tell to a little boy, 'This is not the truth, it is a game?'

History is a combination of reality and lies. The reality of History becomes a lie. The unreality of the fable becomes the truth.

Truth might be stranger than fiction, but it needs a better editor.

A lot of people think the best work I've done was nonfiction - the 'Brothers and Keepers' book. But I think of myself as a fiction writer. And I think, if my work is put in perspective, all the books would be a continual questioning of what's true and what's not true, what's documented and what's not documented.