You don't write because someone sets assignments! You write because you need to write, or because you hope someone will listen or because writing will mend something broken inside you or bring something back to life.
Joanne HarrisRead
One of the things that writing has taught me is that fiction has a life of its own. Fictional places are sometimes more real than the view from our bedroom window. Fictional people can sometimes become as close to us as our loved ones.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fiction creates a vivid reality that can feel more genuine than our everyday experiences.
In this quote, Joanne Harris reflects on the profound power of fiction to shape our perceptions and connections. She suggests that the worlds and characters created in stories can resonate deeply with us, often feeling more significant than the immediate reality we experience in our own lives. Fiction, therefore, serves as a bridge between imagination and emotional truth, allowing us to form relationships with characters as if they were real people.
Themes
FictionRealityWritingImaginationConnection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of literature in understanding human emotions.
More from Joanne Harris
All quotes →If you can still write in spite of the fact that you're not getting paid, that nobody cares about what you're writing, that nobody wants to publish it, that everybody is telling you to do something else, and you still want to and you still enjoy it and you can't stop doing it...then you're a writer.
Joanne HarrisRead
If you can actually get someone to sit on the edge of their seat and feel nervous if there's a knock at the door, then you've done something pretty terrific as a writer.
Joanne HarrisRead
It isn't just a village. The houses aren't just places to live. Everything belongs to everybody. Everyone belongs to everyone else. Even a single person can make a difference.
Joanne HarrisRead
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