There is a difference between fiction and nonfiction deeper than technique or intention. I value both but genuinely believe that fiction can tell a larger truth. I have built my life on what I learned in books that took me inside characters whose struggles and dilemmas revealed intricate and astonishing things about human character. I have no doubt that some of those novels were based in part on the authors' experiences or real lives — but by moving the narrative over to fiction the author took on the responsibility of fully imagining a world separate from the perspective of one person's experience. Asking 'what if' and answering that question is the bedrock of what the novel can achieve. The story becomes something more than one person's perspective — it reaches as far as the novelist can imagine.
Afterword to the 2012 edition of Bastard Out of Carolina [1992]
Use the link below to read about the life and work of North American poet and novelist DOROTHY ALLISON:
https://lithub.com/dorothy-allison-author-and-force-of-nature-has-died/
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