David Eddings Quotes

The truth is not so good a story.

There are people who will say that this whole account is a lie, but a thing isn't necessarily a lie even if it didn't necessarily happen.

If the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction. But there is always the chance that such a book of fiction may throw some light on what has been written as fact.

We're always just telling stories, and stories are always just approximations of the truth. It's never the truth exactly.

People tell stories and it's up to those who listen whether to believe or not." "Shouldn't the storyteller believe it." "The storyteller should tell it.

There is no story that is not true.

Everything we say is a story. But nothing we say is just a story.

All stories are true," Skarpi said. "But this one really happened, if that's what you mean.

All stories are true.

In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen.

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?

Fiction is Truth's elder sister. Obviously. No one in the world knew what truth was till some one had told a story.

When you're writing a novel, you don't want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view.

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

There are always two or three or four sides to every story.

There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so.

The truth is always less interesting than the fiction.

There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth.

You don't know reality until someone makes a fiction of it. Reality needs the completion of fiction.

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

It really doesn't matter if it happened exactly how I say it happened.

The truth often does sound unconvincing.

You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let's say, and afterward you ask, 'Is it true?' and if the answer matters, you've got your answer . . . Absolute occurrence is irrelevant. A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.

If this book has made any point clear, I hope it's that things don't have to be real to be true. Or vice versa.

Truth is only a question of point of view.