A non-fiction writer pretty much has the shape of the figure in front of him or her and goes about refining it. A work of non-fiction is not as difficult to write as a work of fiction, but it’s not as satisfying in the end.
I’ve done a lot of movies based on real people, real situations, non-fiction books, magazine articles, life rights.
I’m omnivorous in my tastes, fiction and non-fiction, always several books on the go, though I’ll read a novel in a day or two.
I only like non-fiction. After 30 pages of fiction, I think: what nonsense are they trying to write.
Visit any bookshop in Europe, and the shelves are filled with English novels and non-fiction books in translation – while British bookshops stock mainly English and American works.
For some reason, I seem to be bothered whenever I see acts of injustice and assaults on people’s civil liberties. I imagine what I write in the future will follow in that vein. Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction.
Granted, I’m more interested in technology than most people, and less interested in politics than most. But I don’t like to think about categories. I really see myself as a general non-fiction writer.
I thought I would write non-fiction. I thought I would enter the New York literary scene as copy editor, work my way up, and then write my own books.
In high school, I was very active in extracurricular activities such as art, theatre, and choir. I also wrote for the school newspaper, but not regularly, because I never liked writing non-fiction very much.
I’ve always been fascinated by the brain. I wrote a lot about brain-tech in my first non-fiction book, ‘More Than Human.’ So when I decided to write science fiction, that was the technology I gravitated towards.
I originally went to school for writing, for non-fiction. I’m specifically a poetry major within literature, but I don’t know.
I’d probably be a super wealthy guy if I had sat around writing songs and getting them placed like everyone else I know. But I write songs about people or after I meet them and they’re somewhat biographical – they’re fiction but also non-fiction.
One thing that I really love about making records is that you can flow through fiction and non-fiction but, ultimately, everything’s a commentary on real life in some way.
I think, like, fiction has a place to understand those things that are hardest to understand that non-fiction can’t ever get at.
The people who are writing online and the people in my genre of creative non-fiction exert a great deal more freedom that journalists are allowed to exert in their day-to-day work.
I made up my mind that I will do fiction in films and non-fiction in TV.
When you write non-fiction, you sit down at your desk with a pile of notebooks, newspaper clippings, and books and you research and put a book together the way you would a jigsaw puzzle.
There’s nothing quite as exciting or moving as the very finest literary non-fiction.
I think, when you are writing non-fiction, you feel there’s an obligation to get it absolutely right, so all your factual details have to be, have, you know, to go through a long list of them and tick them. I’m not saying that’s not important in fiction, but I think you have a bit more leeway; you can suit yourself.
I prefer non-fiction to fiction. In fact, I don’t read fiction at all. I read books that are based on true events.
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