Kim Young-ha Quotes

Poets tell many lies.

One can be absolutely truthful and sincere even though admittedly the most outrageous liar. Fiction and invention are of the very fabric of life.

A writer of fiction is really... a congenital liar who invents from his own knowledge or that of other men.

I love to invent - avoiding the truth. I need to dramatize.

When I was a kid, I got in trouble for lying a lot, and I had a teacher say, 'Instead of lying, write it down, because if you write it down, it's not a lie anymore; it's fiction.'

What is the difference between the novelist and the liar? At some moments, I have often wondered.

What is a writer of fiction but a liar with a licence?

The most common human act that writing a novel resembles is lying. The working novelist lies daily, very complexly, and at great length.

Being a writer of fiction isn't like being a compulsive liar, honestly.

Writers tell more truths, and more lies, than most.

A woman who doesn't lie is a woman without imagination and without sympathy.

Lies are just another kind of storytelling, but with the very distinct and enlivening motive of desperation. Since writers are by nature desperate creatures, they usually do a pretty good (or pretty awful, but always interesting) job of lying.

The moment kids start to lie is the moment storytelling begins. They are talking about things they didn't see. It's amazing. It's a wonderful moment. Parents should celebrate. 'Hurray! My boy finally started to lie!' All right! It calls for celebration.

Actors are good liars; writers are good liars with good memories.

Novel-writing is a bit like deception. You lie as little as you possibly can. That's the way I do it, anyway.

Writing stories is the habit of lying put to good use.

Oh, mercy, I think we're all storytellers, you know. You think of the excuses you told your parents for why you got home late. I just never gave it up.

It's no sin to tell a good story.

I make pictures to tell a story, to tell lies, and to amuse.

Lying and art are very allied. But after you lie, you get to the truth.

You can be very honest without telling the truth, at least in art.

A magician pulls a rabbit from a hat, and actors pull truth from fiction.

As soon as you start doing that - changing things - it seems self-evident to me that you've entered the world of make-believe. If you pretend that it's true, and use your own name, you are misleading people. Fiction is looser and wilder and sometimes in the end more self-revealing, anyway.

Fiction comes in all shapes and sizes. Secrets,lies,stories. We all tell them. Sometimes,because we hope to entertain. Sometimes,because we need to distract. And sometimes, because we have to.