30 Historical Fiction Quotes for You to Enjoy

When you're writing historical fiction, you have to think a little farther into the situation: what the average social interactions were, what was acceptable behavior. What did people think was fun, what did they find unhappy, and why? Alexander Chee

Historical fiction was not - and is not - meant to supplant literature from the period it describes. As a veteran of the Crimea, Tolstoy wrote 'War and Peace' to match his own internal sense of the truth of the Napoleonic wars, to dramatize what he felt literature from that period had failed to describe. Alexander Chee

Truth War Peace Veteran Own Sense Had He Failed Period Wrote Felt Match His Historical Historical Fiction Fiction Literature Meant Internal Wars Describe Tolstoy

If you're writing something that's clearly labelled as an alternative history, of course it's perfectly legitimate to play with known historical characters and events, but less so when you're writing an essentially straight historical fiction. Diana Gabaldon

When I lived in China, there were no libraries. My mother bought books for me, and they were mostly the classics. I read 'Peter Pan,' 'The Secret Garden,' the 'Rosemary' books, and Kipling's 'Just So' Stories was one of my favorites. No, I didn't read historical fiction. It didn't exist where I was growing up in China. Jean Fritz

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I just love historical fiction. Jennifer Donnelly

Love Historical Historical Fiction Just Fiction

I do believe that sci-fi or historical fiction finds an easy home in comics because there are no budget constraints in regards to the necessary world-building or visual effects necessary to bring those stories to life in other mediums. Jonathan Hickman

You can't believe anything that's written in an historical novel, and yet the author's job is always to create a believable world that readers can enter. It's especially so, I think, for writers of historical fiction. Justin Cartwright

You World Job Believe Think Enter Writers Written Readers Always Historical Historical Fiction Author Fiction Anything Create Novel Believable

I've always been drawn to historical fiction. Karin Slaughter

Drawn Always Been Historical Historical Fiction Fiction

When I was growing up I loved reading historical fiction, but too often it was about males; or, if it was about females, they were girls who were going to grow up to be famous like Betsy Ross, Clara Barton, or Harriet Tubman. No one ever wrote about plain, normal, everyday girls. Kathryn Lasky

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I went to grad school with the grand plan of getting my Ph.D. and writing weighty, Tudor-Stuart-set historical fiction - from which I emerged with a law degree and a series of light-hearted historical romances about flower-named spies during the Napoleonic wars. Lauren Willig

I'm not a great reader of historical fiction; it's not my favourite genre. Mal Peet

Great Favourite Genre Reader Historical Historical Fiction Fiction

As a writer of historical fiction, I believe you don't want to fictionalize gratuitously; you want the fictional aspects to prod and pressure the history into new and exciting reactions. Matthew Pearl

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One of the great lessons I learned about historical fiction from writing 'Loving Frank' is that you don't try to disguise what people did; my approach was to try to understand the characters and why they did what they did. Nancy Horan

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Historical fiction is actually good preparation for reading SF. Both the historical novelist and the science fiction writer are writing about worlds unlike our own. Pamela Sargent

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I like writing historical fiction. Philippa Gregory

Writing Like Historical Historical Fiction Fiction

Overall, I adhere to the one guiding rule any author writing historical fiction should follow: whatever you describe has to be possible. It may not be common, obvious, or even all that probable, but it absolutely has to be possible. Stephanie Laurens

I have a fondness for historical fiction, something wondrous like 'Wolf Hall,' but I'll read most anything as long as the story grabs my mind or my heart, and preferably both. You would be hard pressed, however, to find science fiction on my shelves. Sue Monk Kidd

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The thing about being a mystery writer, what marks a mystery writer out from a chick lit author or historical fiction writer, is that you always find a mystery in every situation. Tana French

You Situation Every Marks Out Find About Mystery Writer Always Historical Chick Historical Fiction Author Being Lit Fiction Fiction Writer Thing

Historical Fiction Quotes

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