The essential difference between writing nonfiction and writing fiction is that the artist owns his vision, while the journalist can never really claim one, or at least not a complete one—because the real world is infinitely complex and ever changing. Art frees you from the infuriating unfinishedness of the real world.
-Mark Bowden
4 comments:
I even know where you read that!
Also, here's a contender for QOTW: "Dennis Kusinich -- he looks like a Keebler elf, his wife looks like a Tolkien elf."
I thought that piece about David Simon was interesting. It added another wrinkle to the B'more Sun scenes in this season of The Wire.
The piece kind of degenerates after the quote into Bowden explaining why he's not doing a hatchet job on David Simon while doing exactly that. Still, great quote.
Funny, in my experience, the essential difference is people pay you a decent amount of money for the nonfiction but expect the fiction damn near free.
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