QuoteProject
Fiction becomes a weird way to countenance yourself and to tell the truth instead of being a way to escape yourself or present yourself in a way you figure you will be maximally likable.
David Foster Wallace
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Fiction serves as a means to explore one's true self and express honesty rather than merely a tool for self-presentation or evasion.

In this quote, David Foster Wallace suggests that fiction is not just a form of escapism, but rather a profound avenue for self-exploration and truth-telling. It emphasizes that through the act of creating or engaging with art, one can reflect on their own identity and convey deeper truths rather than just presenting a likable facade to the world.

Themes

FictionSelf-ExplorationTruthArtIdentity

In practice

Example use cases

In a writing workshop, a facilitator quotes Wallace to inspire participants to find personal truths in their stories.

More from David Foster Wallace

You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.
David Foster WallaceRead
It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
David Foster WallaceRead
Under fun's new administration, writing fiction becomes a way to go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don't want to see or let anyone else see, and this stuff usually turns out (paradoxically) to be precisely the stuff all writers and readers share and respond to, feel.
David Foster WallaceRead
Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.
David Foster WallaceRead
Bliss - a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious - lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.
David Foster WallaceRead

Similar quotes

The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken.
Julia ChildRead
It's a fundamental, social attitude that the 1% supports symphonies and operas and doesn't support Johnny learning to program hip-hop beats. When I put it like that, it sounds like, 'Well, yeah,' but you start to think, 'Why not, though?' What makes one more valuable than another?
David ByrneRead
A story was a form of telepathy. By means of inking symbols onto a page, she was able to send thoughts and feelings from her mind to her reader's. It was a magical process, so commonplace that no one stopped to wonder at it.
Ian McewanRead
There is no need to create. Genius comes only to those who know how to use their eyes and their intelligence.
Auguste RodinRead
Every time I write these words they become a taboo,_x000D_ _x000D_ Making sure my punctuation curve, every letter here's true,_x000D_ _x000D_ Living my life in the margin, and that metaphor was proof.
Kendrick LamarRead
To be honest, the biggest reason I write music and became a musician was to create the amount of joy that I felt about music to anyone else. To me, that's a job well done.
HozierRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.