I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.
Harry S. TrumanNot only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them.
John RuskinNo, it’s not a very good story – its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.
Stephen KingI like the way the stories of my relationships sound to music more than the way they look in print, in gossip columns or in me talking about them in interviews. I think it’s a better way of telling the stories.
Taylor SwiftStorytelling is a very old human skill that gives us an evolutionary advantage. If you can tell young people how you kill an emu, acted out in song or dance, or that Uncle George was eaten by a croc over there, don’t go there to swim, then those young people don’t have to find out by trial and error.
Margaret AtwoodPiety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
AristotleJustice and truth are too such subtle points that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.
Blaise PascalNothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.
Blaise PascalI was always very curious as a young man about why older writers who I met seemed so indifferent to what was going on, whereas I, in my 20s, was reading everything. Everything seemed important. But they were only interested in the writers they admired when they were young, and I didn’t understand it then, but now, now I understand it.
Paul AusterSay not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘
Khalil GibranI’ve just always been a reader.
Kevin GatesI seem to turn out stories that violate the discipline of the short story form and don’t obey the rules of progression for novels. I don’t think about a particular form: I think more about fiction, let’s say a chunk of fiction.
Alice MunroI have suffered most of the things I write about – or my friends have.
Dolly PartonAt first, I was scared to show fear because you can never be sure how people will perceive you. But I dared myself to do that, to stand out. Now I’ll talk about being beaten up or robbed or making a stupid decision because of a girl or whatever.
Kendrick LamarEverything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.
Albert SchweitzerThere is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.
Walt DisneyNo legacy is so rich as honesty.
William ShakespeareFiction is such a world of freedom, it’s wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.
Alice WalkerEvery author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWhat is history but a fable agreed upon?
Napoleon BonaparteIn whatever adulation you get, there’s truth and there’s not truth. And wherever they dog you, and they say it was horrible – there’s truth and there’s not truth. It’s human nature to like to read the adulation more.
Matthew McConaugheyThere are no facts, only interpretations.
Friedrich NietzscheI have never sat down and studied the Bible, never consciously echoed its language, and am, in reality, as ignorant of it as most brought-up Christians. All of the Bible that I use in my work is remembered from childhood and is the common property of all who were brought up in English-speaking communities.
Dylan ThomasI believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me.
William ShakespearePurity is the feminine, truth the masculine of honor.
David HareBroadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.
Winston ChurchillMore people should read books. It’s the most concentrated experience you can have.
Vivienne WestwoodA good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
Gilbert K. ChestertonMadame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.
Ernest HemingwayI have written a book. This will come as quite a shock to some. They didn’t think I could read, much less write.
George W. BushHell is empty and all the devils are here.
William ShakespeareYou can’t get a contemporary story about what is going on inside government, and how society sees itself, on American TV.
David HareFor a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.
Ernest HemingwayI think a lot of people, including me, clammed up when a civilian asked about battle, about war. It was fashionable. One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell it, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.
Kurt VonnegutI don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever. I’m not really book-smart.
EminemThere are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Benjamin DisraeliI’ve been asked this question so many times, do you feel you need to write a book for adults? No, I don’t need to write a book for adults.
J. K. RowlingWhen I meet people who say – which they do all of the time – ‚I must just tell you, my great aunt had cancer of the elbow and the doctors gave her 10 seconds to live, but last I heard she was climbing Mount Everest,‘ and so forth, I switch off quite early.
Christopher HitchensOne thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they’re just infested with lots of stuff.
Terry PratchettI always tell audiences when I talk about writing: Writing isn’t something I do; writing is something that I am. I am writing – it’s just an expression of me.
Wayne DyerI’ve still not written as well as I want to. I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa, in Kowloon, China, in Cape Town, South Africa, can say, ‚You know, that’s the truth. I wasn’t there, and I wasn’t a six-foot black girl, but that’s the truth.‘
Maya AngelouI’m sure most parents read to their children to explain what certain things mean. So books are a good way to convey a message to anybody. Everybody reads.
Joyce MeyerTruth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.
William JamesWherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.
Ralph Waldo EmersonFor an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it.
Jean-Paul SartreAny good piece of material like Shakespeare ought to be open to reinterpretation.
Denzel WashingtonI’m not searching for hard news; I’m not a journalist, but I’m interested in pushing to boundaries of where we can do the kind of stories that we want to do. I mean, it’s a big world and CNN has made it a lot bigger and they haven’t flinched.
Anthony BourdainYou can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Abraham LincolnThe ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.
Robert FrostI like gaps; all my stories have gaps. It seems this is the way people’s lives present themselves.
Alice MunroIf you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
Mark TwainEven if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.
Mahatma GandhiThe great quest of life has always been to discover truth.
Joyce MeyerNine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed.
H. L. MenckenWell, if Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this gear.
William ShakespeareThere is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, ‚Truth is the daughter of Time.‘
Abraham LincolnIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Charles DickensTruth never damages a cause that is just.
Mahatma GandhiShow me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.
F. Scott Fitzgerald