Theresa Rebeck Quotes

As a journalist, the details always tell the story.

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

A writer's work is to witness things.

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

The first rule of hip-hop is probably keep it real. And that can mean a lot of different things, but that's certainly important in reporting and storytelling.

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

As a journalist, your job is to bear witness.

See, I have no journalism in my background, so I wasn't practised at research or writing non-fiction, nor at handling the truth in a journalistic way. Journalists know when to call a halt and write something, but I kept on looking for answers.

My assignment is what every writer's assignment is: tell the truth of his own time.

Good journalism, I think, represents life and if you try to organize something too neatly it usually blows up in your face and doesn't really happen the way you want it to.

I think the most important thing journalism taught me is to mine for details. The details are key. You can't try to be funny or strange or poignant; you have to let the details be funny or strange or poignant for you.

My function is, as objectively and accurately as I can, to present reality to people out there, and doing that as quickly as we do is quite difficult enough, thank you.

Truth is so much more interesting than the fiction we're used to.

It might sound glib, but in a sense, as an actor I'm a journalist and a psychologist recording life and truth.

Tricks you need to transform something which appears fantastic, unbelievable into something plausible, credible, those I learned from journalism. The key is to tell it straight. It is done by reporters and by country folk.

The core of my writing is not art but truth.

Once we thought, journalists and readers alike, that if we put together enough 'facts' and gave them a fast stir, we would come up with something that, at least by the standards of short-order cooks, could be called the truth.

Lest men suspect your tale untrue, Keep probability in view.

Truth: An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance …

In the end, it's about the reality. You want something that's believable in the performances; you want something that's believable in the storytelling, in the writing. You just want to connect to something that you feel is real.

I am a regular writer in Mexico, and I always tell the truth in my writings.

We have to reflect the world that we live in.

When you are working on a real story it is your responsibility to get everything right and stay as true and authentic as possible.

As a journalist - or as a writer - my obligation is to come as close to the truth as I possibly can. And that's not as close to someone else's truth, but the truth as I see it.

I struggled in the beginning. I said I was going to write the truth, so help me God. And I thought I was. I found I couldn't. Nobody can write the absolute truth.