Matthew Pearl Quotes

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

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

Just so you know, when they say "once upon a time"....they're lying. It's not once upon a time. Its not even twice upon a time. It's hundreds of times, over and over, every time someone opens up the pages of this dusty old book.

Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all.

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

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

fiction is the great lie that tells the truth

In the end, fiction is the craft of telling truth through 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.

Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel.

I shall try to tell the truth, but the result will be fiction.

It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.

Surely the job of fiction is to actually tell the truth. It's a paradox that's at the heart of any kind of storytelling.

It's no sin to tell a good story.

I make it all up, and all of it is true.

They say truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, but there's such a thing as believability when you're writing a novel.

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

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.

Truth is a well-known pathological liar. It invariably turns out to be Fiction wearing a fancy frock. Self-proclaimed Fiction, on the other hand, is entirely honest. You can tell this, because it comes right out and says, "I'm a Liar," right there on the dust jacket.

I certainly don't believe you documentary filmmakers. Like me, you are involved in making fiction, and your fiction is just as well organized and just as well predicated, but the big difference between me and you is that I'm honest and you're dishonest. I know I'm telling you lies.

As I keep saying, fiction is truth. I think fiction is the truest thing there ever was.

There's no such thing as autobiography, there's only art and lies

Truth maybe stranger than fiction, but fiction is truer.

Truth is not always injured by fiction.

I write fiction, there's no guarantee that what I say is truthful.