Lynn Coady Quotes

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

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.

My thing is to try to tell the truth as honestly as possible. For me, the weight is, how can I tell the truth through fiction, the best that I can?

Character is always my driving force. And to tell a good story and to provide an entertaining read.

Not all poetry wants to be storytelling. And not all storytelling wants to be poetry. But great storytellers and great poets share something in common: They had something to say, and did.

The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.

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

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

Fiction is a lie that is told in the service of truth.

I mean, I'm in the business of storytelling, not message making.

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

In journalism I can only tell what happened. In fiction, I can show it.

The hardest thing to teach young writers is that it's wonderful to tell your truth. And that's what you should do. But it damn well better be beautiful.

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

I don't believe that anything's totally invented... If you're completely inventing a story, there wouldn't be an urge to tell it.

I think you can do a lot with fiction, and in some cases you can say even more in fiction than you can in straight-up documentary journalism.

I guess, taking away all the theatrics or the costuming and the outer layers of what I do, I'm a writer... I write.

Literature exists at the same time in the modes of error and truth; it both betrays and obeys its own mode of being.

At the end of the day, I want to be known for my ability to create life from words.

I don't ever want anything to come in the way of me truthfully telling a story.

When I set out to write 'Sanctus,' all I wanted to do was craft a piece of high quality entertainment.

When I was a kid, I got in trouble for lying a lot, and I had a teacher say, 'Instead of lying, write it down, because if you write it down, it's not a lie anymore; it's fiction.'

I'm a writer. My job is to speak what - that which I think is true. If that bridges the gap, that's good. If it doesn't, that's too bad.

I've always been an artist who's about being real and about telling the truth and making music with integrity and talking about something.

I am a regular writer in Mexico, and I always tell the truth in my writings.