I work on the assumption, or let it be the fear, that the reader will stop reading if I stop being interesting.
Clive JamesRead
Fiction is life with the dull bits left out.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fiction enhances reality by omitting the mundane aspects of life.
Clive James emphasizes that fiction serves to present life in a more engaging and compelling manner, filtering out the uninteresting and tedious elements. By doing so, it captivates readers and allows them to experience a richer narrative that resonates with the human experience.
Themes
FictionLifeStorytellingNarrativeImagination
In practice
Example use cases
During a book club discussion, one could use this quote to highlight the significance of storytelling.
More from Clive James
All quotes βTelevision is simultaneously blamed, often by the same people, for worsening the world and for being powerless to change it.
Clive JamesRead
Murray sounds like a blindfolded man riding a unicycle on the rim of the pit of doom, the men actually facing the danger are all so taciturn that you might as well try interviewing the cars themselves.
Clive JamesRead
Prejudices are useless. Call Los Angeles any dirty name you like - Six Suburbs in Search of a City, Paradise with a Lobotomy, anything - but the fact remains that you are already living in it before you get there
Clive JamesRead
Anyone afraid of what he thinks television does to the world is probably just afraid of the world.
Clive JamesRead
I was wrong, however, to suppose that Sellers thought the world revolved around him. He thought the cosmos did too, and history, and the fates... Like every egomaniac, he behaved as if everybody else spent their day being as interested in him as he was.
Clive JamesRead
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I work for ABC. If the thing that ABC is paying me for is storytelling - not to make sure that a costume is exactly right or all those other things - then it is up to me to find the most creative space possible so that that function of my job can happen.
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Part of the particular interest and beauty of science fiction and fantasy: writer and reader collaborate in world-making.
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We read critics for the perceptions, for what they tell us that we didn't fully grasp when we saw the work. The judgments we can usually make for ourselves.
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