Thomas Gray Quotes

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

The best stories come out of the truth.

Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come by.

A great writer reveals the truth even when he or she does not wish to.

It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Before you can write anything, you have to notice something.

In order to write about life first you must live it.

I write about what I know, what I live, what I observe.

If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.

I've never actually even contemplated writing a book or having a book.

When guys do books or stories, all I like to see is the truth.

As writers, it is our job not only to imagine, but to witness.

A writer's work is to witness things.

When I was about eight, I realised the person whose name was on the book got money for it, and it seemed almost too good to be true that you could get paid for making things up.

I ask questions. I watch the world. And what I have discovered is that the parts of my fiction that people most tell me are 'unbelievable' are those that are most closely based on the real, those least diluted by my imagination.

I think anything that anyone writes that's any good is going to have a lot of autobiography.

All stories should have some honesty and truth in them, otherwise you're just playing about.

I write from my imagination, not from what I've read in books or seen on TV or to make money. I wrote from an idea I was passionate about.

The well of true wit is truth itself.

A writer is not a prophet, is not a philosopher; he's just someone who is witness to what is around him. And so writing is a way to... it's the best way to testify, to be a witness.

It's not just that reporting gives you a bigger slice of life, gives - lends verisimilitude to what you are doing - it's that it feeds the imagination.

You don't have to go fight bulls in Spain like Hemingway to write something great, or go off to war. It's right under your nose.

I'm a writer. My job is to speak what - that which I think is true. If that bridges the gap, that's good. If it doesn't, that's too bad.

My books aren't autobiographical.

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

In a way, there's nothing new under the sun, so anything you write about has been written about by other people. All you can do is bring yourself to it, bring as much honesty as you can to it.