I know that I am going to meet a personal variation on reality; a partial view of reality. But I know also that by that partiality, that distancing from the shared experience, it will be new: a revelation. It will be a vision, a more or less powerful or haunting dream. A space-voyage through somebody else's psychic abysses. It will fall short of tragedy, because tragedy is the truth, and truth is what the very great artists, the absolute novelists, tell. It will not be truth; but it will be imagination. Truth is best. For it encompasses tragedy and partakes of the eternal joy. But very few of us know it; the best we can do is recognize it. Imagination - to me - is the next best. For it partakes of Creation, which is one aspect of the eternal joy. All the rest is either Politics or Pedantry, or Mainstream Fiction, may it rest in peace.Anonymous
About This Quote
This quote by William S. Burroughs captures the essence of the art of fiction. The power of imagination to put us in new places and make us see things in new ways is something that great writers possess. That is the very reason why they are able to write works that capture people's attention and change their lives.
A novel is a way of seeing through a different lens, a very personal lens. The writer is able to connect with his readers so directly that they can almost feel what he has felt. He has somehow been placed in the very same place as them and he has seen things from their perspectives.
In this quote, Burroughs captures that essence well.
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