“Fiction is real life without its mask.”

“It was a dance of masks and every mask was perfect because every mask was a real face and every face was areal mask so there was no mask and there was no face for there was but one dance in which there was butone mask but one true face which was the same and which was a thing without a name which changed andchanged into itself over and over.”

“Fiction can be more real to the reader than reality itself because fiction is the essence of life”

“Science fiction is not about the freedom of imagination. It's about a free imagination pinched and howling in a vise that other people call real life.”

“Without reflecting that this is the only moment in which you can study character," said the count; "on the steps of the scaffold death tears off the mask that has been worn through life, and the real visage is disclosed.”

“Life would be so much easier if fictional boys were real.”