Robert J. Sawyer Quotes

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

Everybody claims they have relatable, connectable characters, but those claims often aren't true.

Everything in a story should be credible.

It's a good question, because to be believable is the only way that you could be successful.

I like to have the impression that whatever is happening is true.

Verisimilitude is something I am constantly seeking in fiction. I am looking for surface detail that makes something seem real.

If it's fiction, then it better be true.

The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction needs to be credible.

It's really surprising that what you put on paper, people will believe.

Even when I do commercials, I try to tell a story about the product. With music, I try to tell the story of the person's struggle for success. And I believe every word I say. I never read anything on the air I don't believe in. I think people sense that about me, and they respond to it.

As a main ingredient to the show, it has to have truth, represent truth, or else it won't last.

I hope that what it comes down to at the end of the day is that people believe that I believe what I'm singing. It comes down to being believable. You don't have to be likeable; generally, though, I think I am.

If the audience sees and feels things are real, then they buy it.

I do crazy amounts of research. I want this stuff to 'work,' so to speak. I need to be, at least to me, believable - because if I feel - if I cannot invest some element of verisimilitude, the reader is absolutely not going to buy in.

Real life doesn't have to be convincing, but fiction does.

My action follows my characters. If a character is a cop, you cannot be posing all the time, you cannot fly off the roof because it doesn't make any sense - it's not practical.

I believe in research you cannot do enough research; believability comes out of what's real.

I'm writing about real things. Real people. Real characters. You have to believe what I write about is true or you wouldn't pay any attention at all. Sometimes it's me, or a composite of me and other people. Sometimes it's not me at all.

I know what I like in other actors: truth. That's the best. It makes you say, 'OK, I'll go with you on this.'

The most important thing in acting is honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made.

The best stories come out of the truth.

This is not a sham, not a game. This is the real stuff.

You have an audience that is fairly well grounded in the real world. You serve them and yourself best by making everything as real as possible.

Truth is what works.

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