William H. Gass Quotes

All myth is an enriched pattern, a two-faced proposition, allowing its operator to say one thing and mean another, to lead a double life. Hence the notion found early in ancient thought that all poets are liars. And from the true lies of poetry trickled out a question. What really connects words and things?

Being a writer of fiction isn't like being a compulsive liar, honestly.

The great philosophers are poets who believe in the reality of their poems.

I have always considered imaginative truth to be more profound, more loaded with significance, than every day reality... Everything we dream about, and by that I mean everything we desire, is true (the myth of Icarus came before aviation, and if Ader or Bleriot started flying it is because all men have dreamed of flight). There is nothing truer than myth... Reality does not have to be: it is simply what is.

Words give wings to the mind and make a man soar to heaven.

You know what ART stands for? Above Real Truth.

If you can't find the exact quote you want, make it up.

What is a writer of fiction but a liar with a licence?

Hegel says that Truth is a great word and the thing is greater still. With Dave we never seemed to get past the word.

The Sophists had this idea: Forget this idea of what's true or not—what you want to do is rhetoric; you want to be able to persuade the audience and have the audience think you're smart and cool. And Socrates and Plato, basically their whole idea is, "Bullshit. There is such a thing as truth, and it's not all just how to say what you say so that you get a good job or get laid, or whatever it is people think they want.

And they'll vote for me because I'm the best liar, because I do it honestly, with a certain finesse. They know that lies and truth are very close, and that something beautiful rests between.

There is a set of harmless liars, frequently to be met with in company, who deal much in the marvellous. Their usual intention is to please and entertain; but as men are most delighted with what they conceive to be the truth, these people mistake the means of pleasing, and incur universal blame.

The world is an illusion, but an illusion which we must take seriously.

The first of our senses which we should take care never to let rust through disuse is that sixth sense, the imagination. I mean the wide-open eye which leads us to see truth more vividly, to apprehend more broadly, to concern ourselves more deeply, to be, all our life long, sensitive and awake to the powers and responsibilities given to us as human beings.

Francie was ten years old when she first found an outlet in writing. What she wrote was of little consequence. What was important was that the attempt to write stories kept her straight on the dividing line between truth and fiction. If she had not found this outlet in writing, she might have grown up to be a tremendous liar.

Poets themselves, tho' liars by profession, always endeavour to give an air of truth to their fictions.

Just because something is beautifully written does not mean it is true.

The most common human act that writing a novel resembles is lying. The working novelist lies daily, very complexly, and at great length.

Writers tell more truths, and more lies, than most.

I could never put anything into a picture that wasn't actually there in front of me. That would be a pointless lie, a mere bit of artfulness.

Truth is not always injured by fiction.

I did best when I had least truth for my subjects.

Imagination is the deceptive part in man, the mistress of error and falsehood.

As a child I was an inveterate liar. As opposed to now, I am a Novelist.

They weren't true stories; they were better than that.