Top 100 Fiction Words Quotes
#1. Write in pictures. With your words, let the reader see not letters, but images. Be specific about every detail, but don't describe it
make it happen on the page, if you were writing fiction, or make it happen over again, if you were writing about history or some recent event.
A.A. Patawaran
#2. But my voice is too soft. The wind picks up my words and swallows them whole.
Hafsah Faizal
#3. Life is a sewer and we are all but swimmers within it. Smart people do the backstroke. (In other words you gotta have a giggle.)
Stephen B. Pearl
#4. I once heard an elder say that the dead who have no use for their words leave them as part of their children's inheritance. Proverbs, teeth suckings, obscenities, even grunts and moans once inserted in special places during conversations, all are passed along to the next heir.
Edwidge Danticat
#5. I knew I would stay in this town when I found the blue enamel pot floating in the lake. The pot led me to the house, the house led me to the book, the book to the lawyer, the lawyer to the whorehouse, the whorehouse to science, and from science I joined the world.
Leslie Daniels
#6. There was a lot of fiction I did not enjoy, whose landscapes seemed bland and unevocative, the characters faint-hearted within them, the very words lacking vibrancy.
Sarah Hall
#7. The sheer volume of them [mass-market fiction books] was, to me, evidence of a tired culture, one which in large measure was saying the same thing over and over again in more and more words.
Michael McGirr
#8. In other words, that works of history are mere collections of facts. It is fiction alone that can show us the true nature of human beings
Daisaku Ikeda
#9. Television and cinema were all very well, but these stories happened to other people. The stories I found in books happened inside my head. I was, in some way, there.
It's the magic of fiction: you take the words and you build them into worlds.
Neil Gaiman
#10. Some books must be sipped slowly like a strong bourbon. Most books must be devoured more than once because as you age you distill more.
Brandi L. Bates
#11. When I write, I do not like using ten dollar words. I like the fifty-centers. Everybody has fifty-cents, even those that are too proud to admit it.
T.A. Cline
#12. The brain, knowing that a person can't live forever in this world, rationalizes a future, or other-dimensional, world in which immortality is possible. In other words, religion is the earliest form of science fiction.
Philip Jose Farmer
#13. I'm always a little bit cautious around invented terminology because so much science fiction is off-putting to the uninitiated. You open up the first page, and it's full of all these made-up words.
Alastair Reynolds
#14. There is no man but carries in his breast the makings of a story, which, though never told, comes more home to him, than any the mind of another man can find and fashion in words
("The Watcher O' The Dead")
John Guinan
#15. As I pen these words to leave a lasting record, I wonder myself where it all began.
Richard Peck
#16. In other words, fiction is payback for those who have wronged you.
Colson Whitehead
#17. I have a story to tell. It is a tale for those who can still see, can still question.
A story of where you are and how you got here. A tale foretold by your poets and prophets through the ages. Read their words, their thoughts, so that you may understand.
W.H. Wisecarver
#18. I like writing fiction better than anything, because just being a writer of fiction gives you an absolutely unassailable protection against reality; nothing is ever seen clearly or starkly, but always through a thin veil of words.
Shirley Jackson
#19. Usually the science-fiction fan has some indication they're a sci-fi fan and, therefore, a 'Stargate' fan. In other words, they could be wearing a rubber head or some kind of costume or just a T-shirt that gives them away.
Richard Dean Anderson
#20. In science there is a dictum: don't add an experiment to an experiment. Don't make things unnecessarily complicated. In writing fiction, the more fantastic the tale, the plainer the prose should be. Don't ask your readers to admire your words when you want them to believe your story.
Ben Bova
#21. Words, to me, are the same as an instrument is to a musician. I never know where this typewriter is going to take me until I begin. I never know what I'm feeling until I read over what I have written.
Tessa Emily Hall
#22. There are some wounds unreachable by words, some sins immune to apology.
Amy Hatvany
#23. Six wives the King's had now.' Barak's words dragged me from my reverie. 'We can't even get one between us.
C.J. Sansom
#24. In other words - and this is the rock-solid principle on which the whole of the Corporation's Galaxywide success is founded - their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws.
Douglas Adams
#25. If I had to sum up my philosophy of fuckness in a few words so I could cram it on a bumper sticker or t-shirt, those were the words I would have chosen: "Fuck it.
Andersen Prunty
#26. Character starts with the alphabet. Letters: words: sentences Character is a function of language - a collection of errors and deviations that resonate with certain behaviors. As with every other element in fiction, it is a record of a writer's decisions.
Noy Holland
#27. Niko was a man of few words and flying, sugary snacks. I like that in a human. ~Catcher
Rob Thurman
#28. If you want to write believable fiction, you will have to cross over the line of your self-restraint and revel in the words and ideas that you would never express in your everyday life.
Walter Mosley
#29. No fiction, no myths, no lies, no tangled webs - this is how Irie imagined her homeland. Because homeland is one of the magical fantasy words like unicorn and soul and infinity that have now passed into language.
Zadie Smith
#30. Here's to the future, he said and lifted the glass to his mouth. There was a lump of regret stuck in his throat as he spoke the words, but he washed it down with the whiskey.
Bette Lee Crosby
#31. I shouldn't need to remind you that it was words that created the universe and The Word that now holds it together. While your man was simply reading one little book, something not unlike Genesis was stirring in his skull, and you didn't think to stop it?
Geoffrey Wood
#32. If my life was pulled into the pages of a book, there would be coffee stains and wrinkles along the lines of that narrative. Because all I can wish is that the book of my life would be well read and well loved. Living within words and the sound of writing.
F.K. Preston
#33. What I've always taken away from his words is the sense that we all have something that confines us, that seeks to define us, label us, belittling us in the process, shortchanging our potential. Can it be that that is our sanctuary, our refuge, our way to liberty?
Noorilhuda
#34. Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.
Chinua Achebe
#35. But you mark my words: I will be there when everything you love is destroyed. Everything you didn't even believe you would have.
Ana Franco
#36. The funny thing is that in Bosnia there are no words that are equivalent to fiction and nonfiction. From the storytelling point of view, the difference is artificial.
Aleksandar Hemon
#37. The artist deals in what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words.
Ursula K. Le Guin
#38. Grandfather recently died. He died alone on a trip away from home in a town where no one expected him to be
Tea Obreht
#39. I adore you, Chiru. I want to show you in ways words can't express
Augusta Li
#40. It seems The Adversary needs neither their guilt nor their request, but simply their return. In other words, since repentance is the process whereby guilt is turned into gratitude, He doesn't mind if they skip a step and go directly to gratitude.
Geoffrey Wood
#41. As Dorothy J. Heydt famously said, the eight deadliest words for any work of fiction are 'I don't care what happens to these people.
Charlie Jane Anders
#42. He searched his mind for something more to say, something to take away her pain, but he could find nothing. There were no words to ease such a pain. He knew because the ache in his heart was as great as hers.
Bette Lee Crosby
#43. A 21st century poet is a woman who can speak her mind and stand upright like a mountain with her convictions, but can adapt like water in an ever changing season without losing her genuine elements.
Roseville Nidea
#44. As a man writes his fiction, his fiction is writing him. We can never change ourselves back into what we were, any more than I can change these printed words. So we have to be careful about what we write.
Ross Macdonald
#45. I wrapped my arms around my body, pushing away my doubts and indecision for just a moment, and looked out toward the cemetery. "Whatever it takes," I vowed. And as I said the words, I felt a chill run across my neck and a ghostly touch slide down my cheek
Catrina Burgess
#46. What were you doing all those years, after you disappeared?' Doug paused, unsure of his words. 'After she died.'
Grace looked at the grave across the space she had been too weak to cross. 'I was learning to make music.
Abigail Easton
#47. The alien reached out her hands to hold Alex's tightly. "Please. Some of what I want to express, it may be difficult to locate the right words."
"Of course."
Pure alabaster eyes stared back at her. "Child, there is a hole in your mind.
G.S. Jennsen
#48. Flour and butter, cream and sugar, words and images -- all the ingredients for a rich, tasty story.
Rona Simmons
#49. Music took her somewhere, and I used to wonder where. I thought it was dumb, the way she lived for a collection of sounds, for someone else's words and notes.
Megan Lindholm
#50. There are writers whose first drafts are so lean, so skimpy, that they must go back and add words, sentences, paragraphs to make their fiction intelligible or interesting. I don't know any of these writers.
Nancy Kress
#51. To be honest with you, I don't have the words to make you feel better, but I do have the arms to give you a hug, ears to listen to whatever you want to talk about, and I have a heart; a heart that's aching to see you smile again.
lines from Love Vs Destiny ...
Atul Purohit
#52. You are working up to Mr. Fantastic Fiction levels of Zombie Expert, which is like playing Guitar Hero on some level that actually melts the guitar controller, burning your fingers with searing hot plastic till you scream in pain. Only with words. And zombies.
Libba Bray
#53. And in a way I have always thought that words are alive a little, for they can whisper sweet nothings and roar dragon flame with equal efficiency.
Lyndsay Faye
#54. It's surprising how much life can change in a minute, how we can be swept up in a moment by kind words or affection craved for a lifetime. We'll do anything to feel alive, to feel human.
Brittany Weekley
#55. Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.
Virginia Woolf
#56. I consider whoever my words land on to be my target, that's why I like flash fiction, it's a lot like using a shotgun.
Neil Leckman
#57. When I try to achieve greatness, it spits on me the night before.
Monroe Ariel
#58. I listened as the words became sentences and the sentences became pages and the pages became feelings and voices and places and people.
Jennifer Donnelly
#59. Why should I struggle through hundreds of pages of fabrication to reach half a dozen very little truths?'
'For fun?'
'Fun!' He pounced on the word. 'Words are for truth. For facts. Not fiction.
John Fowles
#60. Sharon Shinn is a lover of words and a builder of worlds. She makes science-fiction seem like fantasy. Her characters jump off the page, finding their way under your skin and into your heart.
Alethea Kontis
#61. I like the sounds of words. Words are very enjoyable. I like words because they are ... seductive. And I like words because they can contain ... fantasies.
James Lusarde
#62. Forcing the muse to let thoughts flow; equals to pushing a child, into labor.
Aniruddha Sastikar
#63. Metaphysically, his bowl filled and emptied at the same time. Violent and maniacal to push himself so far, he'd both created and destroyed his body's energy. In other words he had complete power, self-sustaining, self-sacrificing power at the origin of himself.
E.J. Koh
#64. Don't take our word for it. Read the Bible itself. Read the statements of preachers. And you will understand that God is the most desperate character, the worst villain in all fiction.
E. Haldeman-Julius
#65. We who have seen the truth will reshape the world, and Ireland shall be our entrance to this world beyond words.
Orna Ross
#66. Words have great cumulative power, but in the 21st century, a single image is much stronger. An image suggests the unvarnished truth. That is its power and its fiction.
Alexandra Kerry
#67. Veins stood out in her temples as she struggled against her silence. No one noticed. Those words had already been used up, spent, thrown out into the atmosphere to dissipate without effect.
Danielle Ste. Just
#68. Haydn snorts. "Only gullible, lovesick fools spout that mushy crap." Thank the stars that his tone is teasing, because I can sense Logan's patience waning.
"When you find the right girl, I'm so going to make you eat your words. And I'm going to thoroughly enjoy rubbing your nose in it.
Siobhan Davis
#69. Sometimes when we label something dystopian fiction, I feel like we're trying very hard not to use the words 'science fiction,' because science fiction has those horrible connotations of rocket ships and bodacious babes.
Paolo Bacigalupi
#70. Magic is all about words and believing. If you believe then anything is possible.
Jennifer Loiske
#71. For some reason, her words snapped the zip-tie that had been holding his secret. She'd just given him permission to be flawed.
Tammy L. Gray
#72. He rubbed at his face, as if seeking to awaken the right words from muscle, blood and bone.
Steven Erikson
#73. A joke is a witticism or play on words that's meant to be funny. I say 'meant to be' because most jokes aren't funny. They range between mildly amusing and grimace-inducingly annoying.
Michael Monroe
#74. She waits for his reprimand or words of disapproval.
He kisses her instead. Hard. Lips demanding, fingers tightening on her chin. He consumes her with this single act.
Laura Kreitzer
#75. I took on a year of reading books for a reason. Because words are witness to life: they record what has happened, and they make it all real. Words create the stories that become history and become unforgettable. Even fiction portrays truth: good fiction is truth.
Nina Sankovitch
#76. Love is the only emotion so unexplainable and unique, that not even the greatest of writers could hope to contain it within their meagre words.
Ross Turner
#77. I might've found a way to cure them." Crystal said in a jumble of words.
"Cure them? Permanently?"
"Yes sir."
He thought about this a moment before speaking, "You've got two weeks, can you do it by then?"
"That's plenty of time sir, thank you.
Julia Barkey
#78. Although this man spoke pure fluent ghetto, she liked his spirit. She could tell he was attracted to her, and that he was being ever careful with his words.
Brandi L. Bates
#79. I knew when I got into self-publishing I would have to compete with other authors' words. I did not, however, know that I was going to have to compete with so many sculpted abs!
Matthew Culberson
#80. Write for joy. It is the *only* reason to write. Whatever happens to your books afterward, just write for joy. Send your current one out when it's done and forget it, start another, and keep on writing for joy. Words I now live by. Welwyn Wilton Katz
Welwyn Wilton Katz
#81. I was not alone in my success, only in my failure.
J. Devau
#82. Bearing witness from the sides of the room, ten or more lepers shouted at the bizarre scene, "Diable! Diable!" And then chants of some sort, or prayers, followed by more shouts of "Diable!" They were hurling these words at Moreau like stones.
Cole Alpaugh
#83. I write pre-apocalyptic fiction. In other words, I'm not interested in a future where everything is blown to hell, I'd rather write something that helps to prevent it from happening.
James Rozoff
#85. Fiction is always a utopian task, in that there's an ideal you hold in your head as you write which inevitably fails in the moment of creation, in the insufficiency of words to convey meaning, or in the way the work is completed in the reader's head.
Lauren Groff
#86. An infinite number of monkeys have said an infinite number of things about the Hugos this year. People on all sides have said intelligent and insightful things, and people on all sides have said asinine things. The amount of words spent on this makes the Wheel of Time saga look like flash fiction.
Jim C. Hines
#87. We can't change the world by shouting, but our words can have meaning if we give them enough respect.
Evan Meekins
#88. I know some words floated through my ears, but my mind refused to absorb their meaning. I just shook my head slowly as the wall of pain washed over me, leaving me submerged and broken in the flood.
Leslie Deaton
#89. It's extremely difficult to describe interestingly what happens on the pitch. Thousands of journalists write millions of words every week trying to do it, so your chances of avoiding cliche are very slim. And you're trying to write fiction, not a match report.
Mal Peet
#90. I'm so sorry, bright little thing."
"For what, my lord?:" I asked, my voice small and lost in the dim air.
His words caught in his throat as he answered. "For not making the world a place where you could choose to fight for yourself.
Lesley Livingston
#91. He rubbed my arm, whispering words that sounded like moth bodies flying into glass windows.
Lauren DeStefano
#92. Words aren't good enough for a lot of things, but we have to try.
Ava Dellaira
#93. I felt like a character in a science fiction story, trapped in someone else's body, articulating someone else's words. To be frank, I bored even myself. And by the time I was thirty-six, my course was set, my die stamped, I knew I would never change.
Philip Palmer
#94. The best ending ever, for a science fiction book - or any novel, now that I think about it - was in Rendezvous With Rama. You know that you're at the end of the book and yet, there is no resolution. Then he hits you with those last six words. Better yet, the power is in the very last word. Wow!
John Gaver
#95. to be a fiction writer, you also need to be a psychologist (understanding people's personalities and intentions), a philosopher (asking big questions about meaning and human nature), and a poet (breathing life into your words and the spaces between them).
Steven James
#96. ...Newspapers, popular fiction, and magazines churned out words by the million, and the worn coins of everyday speech were less and less able to communicate anything more than the most commonplace meanings....
Lachman Gary Larkin Steve
#97. In other words, science tells us that Adam and Eve are fictions. That Saint Paul or Uncle Tom Cobley and all thought otherwise is irrelevant. They were wrong.
Michael Ruse
#98. Ari's words felt like drops of sunlight upon my skin, and my frame was burning with longing.
Petra March
#99. Write whatever way you like. Fiction is made of words on a page; reality is made of something else. It doesn't matter how "real" your story is, or how "made up": what matters is its necessity.
Anne Enright
#100. I'm really such a bumbler! Writing fiction is like arranging furniture in a dark room. I can't see what I'm doing. I grope for the right words. I bump against the wrong words and stumble and stub my toe and curse and keep trying to guess what belongs in the space.
Joanna Scott
