Richard Bausch Quotes

I've been falsely accused of drawing too much from real life. But I am a petty thief - I take little things. And, I mean, I can hardly write 10 words before I start to make things up. I start to invent, because that's what I want to do. I'm running away to an invented place.

Writers should be applauded for their ability to make things up.

I take inspiration from my life but only twenty per cent is real the rest is all made up.

One can be absolutely truthful and sincere even though admittedly the most outrageous liar. Fiction and invention are of the very fabric of life.

I don't think I wrote stories down when I was young, but I certainly made them up, perhaps sometimes losing track of the border between reality and make-believe.

Fiction is such a world of freedom, it's wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.

I always say show me a storyteller who doesn't embellish, and I'll show you a bad one.

Truth titillates the imagination far less than fiction.

Anyone who has set out to invent a purely imaginary story knows that the whole thing is fantasy, from beginning to end; there must be a sense of magic created about the most restrained of naturalism.

The job of the novelist is to invent: to embroider, to color, to embellish, to make things up.

I'm a believer in using whatever works for fiction, but mostly, that's not life.

A few people have tried to make me see that my writing isn't quite their thing by saying to me: 'What about realism?' To which my general response is, 'What about it?' However, I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of my favorite writers, Marilynne Robinson, was to say something similar if asked 'What about the fantastic?'

Being a fiction writer makes you someone who works with irresponsibility.

Life is a means of extracting fiction.

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

My life isn't very racy or exciting so I make things up, tell stories. I like telling stories.

I write as if I've lived a lot of things I haven't lived.

Good fiction creates its own reality.

There is a part of me that has to depend on fantasy, because if you can't be somewhat of a fantasy person, then you can't write

There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.

With my writing, I can still play inside an enchanted castle or live inside an old fort. I can run from ghosts or ride dolphins any day of the week.

Fiction is experimentation; when it ceases to be that, it ceases to be fiction.

Kids often ask me if characters are real or made up - and I always tell them, 'I hope they're real but I made them up.'

I like the notion of making stuff up or letting your imagination go away with you.

Fiction is a house with many stately mansions, but also one in which it is wise, at least sometimes, to swing from the chandeliers.