We want to imagine that we know why characters do what they do and feel as they do. We want to understand characters in a story better than we understand ourselves. This, of course, is an illusion available only in fiction. The writer of factual stories is constrained by what the subject is willing and able to reveal.


Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction (2013)

Tracy Kidder Quotes

We want to imagine that we know why characters do what they do and feel as they do. We want to understand characters in a story better than we...

We want to imagine that we know why characters do what they do and feel as they do. We want to understand characters in a story better than we...

We want to imagine that we know why characters do what they do and feel as they do. We want to understand characters in a story better than we...

We want to imagine that we know why characters do what they do and feel as they do. We want to understand characters in a story better than we...