To Be Honest, I Think ... Quoting Julian Barnes

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Julian Barnes

I tell less truth
when I write journalism
than when I write fiction.






When you are writing journalism
your task is to simplify the world
and render it comprehensible 
in one reading.
 
When you are writing fiction your task is to reflect 
the fullest complications of the world, to say things 
that are not as straightforward as might be understood 
from reading my journalism and to produce something
that you hope will reveal further layers of truth 
on a second reading.
 

This image is from  here.

[Writing fiction]
is the best way 
of telling 
the truth. 




It’s a process 
of producing 
grand,beautiful,
well-ordered lies 
that tell more truth than any assemblage of facts.

The  Man Booker Prize
is the British equivalent
of the Pulitzer Prize.



Mr. Barnes was interviewed 
in the  Spring 2000 issue
of  The Paris Review.

The next Julian Barnes page is  here.  
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