“what is fiction in particular is truth in general.”

“I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: the mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about someone who lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself. --From the Introduction”

“Why else do we read fiction, anyway? Not to be impressed by somebody's dazzling language - or at least I hope that's not our reason. I think that most of us read these stories that we know are not 'true' because we're hungry for another kind of truth: The mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story.”

“That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth.”

“The fool generalizes the particular; the nerd particularizes the general; some do both; and the wise does neither”

“Subjects’ unwillingness to deduce the particular from the general was matched only by their willingness to infer the general from the particular.”