Edward Albee Quotes

I have an obligation as a writer to tell a story as interestingly as possible, but with integrity and not inserting false drama... I'm looking to be subtle, but being a wordsmith does not interest me - I want to communicate.

Every fiction has its base in fact.

All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened.

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

Facts are many, but the truth is one.

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

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

In my writing, I focus lenses. I'm almost always seeing when I am writing.

A play is fiction - and fiction is fact distilled into truth.

As a novelist, I ask of myself only that I tell the truth and that I tell it beautifully.

When you write, you take the ball and you hold it up to the light and you turn it slowly, and let people draw their own conclusions. And try to bring empathy to all sides of the equation.

I think the most important quality for a writer to have is empathy.

The aim of any writer, even a fantasy writer, is the pursuit of truth.

When I write, I feel like an optometrist, constantly flipping between lenses and asking, 'Is this better? Is this?' Slowly, the work comes into focus.

To write is to look for very particular, specific points of view on reality.

Fact is richer than diction.

That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth.

So you want another story?" Uhh... no. We would like to know what really happened." Doesn't the telling of something always become a story?" Uhh... perhaps in English. In Japanese a story would have an element of invention in it. We don't want any invention. We want the 'straight facts,' as you say in English." Isn't telling about something--using words, English or Japanese--already something of an invention? Isn't just looking upon this world already something of an invention?

Each day I feel a little differently; some times I try to write something that's fictitious and then there's other times where I try to write something that's true.

I think the most important thing when you're telling a story is to just tell the story as best as you possibly can.

For a creative writer possession of the 'truth' is less important than emotional sincerity.

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.

The thing I am attracted to is just good writing and stories that are based somewhat in reality.

I never fantasized or invented a thing, not one thing. I knew every single thing I ever wrote about.

I don't believe a poet has a better hold on truth or morality than a fiction writer has. And I don't think a fiction writer has anything over a journalist. It's all about the good word, properly inserted.