Jennifer Donnelly Quotes

Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.

The right honorable gentlemen is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.

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

I was one of the most brilliant liars as a child.

I have a great fondness for the liars in my stories.

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

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

I offer detailed but mostly invented narratives about the provenance of my books.

Liars ought to have good memories.

If you're creating a whole universe, even if it's a universe squeezed into a solar system, you have to use a little bit of sleight of hand.

A lot of people are liars who I work with; that's a shame.

I get really upset when I'm around liars.

It's kind of strange-- in fiction you get to tell lies and are applauded for it.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Lie. Put down on paper the most interesting lies you can imagine. . .and then make them plausible.

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

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.

Invention despoils observations, insinuation invalidates memory. A stewpot of bad habits, all of it - so that imaginative writers wind up, by and large, a shifty crew, sunk in distortion, misrepresentation, illusion, imposture, fakery.

People who write fiction, if they had not taken it up, might have become very successful liars.

Poets tell many lies.

I added 'writers' to my list of people not to trust. They make everything up.

That's what a writer does; they make things up and that makes for good reading.

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