Stranger Than Fiction Quotes

• Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.

  Mark Twain

  Truth, Science, Fiction

  Following the Equator ch. 15, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897) See Byron 33; Chesterton 6

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• It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

  Mark Twain

  Truth, Inspirational Life, Fiction

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• For truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.

  Lord Byron

  Funny, Truth, Fiction

  Don Juan canto 14, st. 101 (1823) See Chesterton 6; Twain 93

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• Truth is always stranger than fiction. We craft fiction to match our sense of how things ought to be, but truth cannot be crafted. Truth is, and truth has a way of astonishing us to our knees. Reminding us, that the universe does not exist to fulfill our expectations. Because we are imperfect beings who are self-blinded to the truth of the world’s stunning complexity, we shave reality to paper thin theories and ideologies that we can easily grasp – and we call them truths. But the truth of a sea in all it’s immensity cannot be embodied in one tidewashed pebble.

  Dean Koontz

  Reality, Self, Sea

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• Those who say truth is stranger than fiction have wasted their time on poorly written fiction.

  Mark Twain

  Fiction, Stranger, Truth Is

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• Life is always going to be stranger than fiction, because fiction has to be convincing, and life doesn't.

  Neil Gaiman

  Fiction, Life Is, Stranger

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• Life, my dear Watson, is infinitely stranger than fiction; stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We could not conceive the things that are merely commonplace to existence. If we could hover over this great city, remove the roofs, and peep in at the things going on, it would make all fiction, with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions flat, stale and unprofitable.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Men, Cities, Mind

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• Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more interesting.

  William Randolph Hearst

  Interesting, Fiction, Stranger

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• Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.

  Mark Twain

  Truth, Fiction, Stranger

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• Fact is stranger than fiction.

  Thomas Chandler Haliburton

  Humanity, Fiction, Facts

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• Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Truth, Mind, Fiction

  The Club of Queer Trades "The Singular Speculation of the House-Agent" (1905)

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• Tis strange,-but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction: if it could be told, How much would novels gain by the exchange! How differently the world would men behold!

  Lord Byron

  Men, Fiction, World

  LORD BYRON (1875). “DON JUAN”, p.303

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• Truth may be stranger than fiction, goes the old saw, but it is never as strange as lies.

  John Hodgman

  Inspirational, Lying, Fiction

  John Hodgman (2012). “The Areas of My Expertise”, p.18, Penguin

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• Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it.

  H. L. Mencken

  Truth, Freedom, Philosophy

  H.L. Mencken “A little book in C major”, Рипол Классик

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• The reason why truth is so much stranger than fiction is that there is no requirement for it to be consistent.

  Mark Twain

  Fiction, Requirements, Reason Why

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• The truth is stranger than fiction . . . and often more incriminating.

  Greg Cox

  Fiction, Stranger, Truth Is

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• The reason that truth is stranger than fiction is that fiction has to have a rational thread running through it in order to be believable, whereas reality may be totally irrational.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Running, Truth, Honesty

  Sydney J. Harris (1986). “Clearing the ground”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• You need to understand that truth is stranger than fiction. Listen: people are willing to swallow any old tripe as long as you say it without flinching. They want to be told stuff. And they don't want to doubt you either. It's too hard.

  Craig Silvey

  Long, People, Doubt

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• If you tell the truth you do not need a good memory!

  Mark Twain

  Truth, Honesty, Memories

  Mark Twain, Classics HD (2015). “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: by Mark Twain (Illustrated and Unabridged)”, p.2, Classics HD

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• Truth might be stranger than fiction, but it needs a better editor.

  David Benioff

  Editors, Needs, Fiction

  David Benioff (2005). “When the Nines Roll Over: And Other Stories”, p.90, Penguin

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• Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened gives it a poignancy, touches a chord, which a piece of acknowledged fiction misses. It is to touch this chord that some authors have done everything they could to give you the impression that they are telling the plain truth.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Giving, Missing, Fiction

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• We must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days are in fact here for a much larger and nobler cause.  They are here to save our lives.

  Emma Thompson

  Anomalies, Nuance, Causes

  "Fictional character: Karen P. Eiffel". "Stranger Than Fiction", 2006.

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• Fact is stranger than fiction. You see people walking down the street that would never be allowed on television. You have to tone it down.

  Ricky Gervais

  People, Facts, Tone

  2002 On the Jo Whiley show, BBC Radio 1, 30 Sep.

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• Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction to suit ourselves.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Truth, Fiction, Suits

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.145, Simon and Schuster

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• The times are so peculiar now, so mediaeval so unreasonable that for the first time in a hundred years truth is really stranger than fiction. Any truth.

  Gertrude Stein

  Truth, War, Years

  Gertrude Stein (2013). “Wars I Have Seen”, p.133, Random House

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