“Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.”
I’ve had people tell me that they prefer non-fiction books, because fiction isn’t real. For me, the best fiction I’ve read tunnels deep into the truest truths that can’t be explained in any other way than through the imagination. There are so many times I want to explain something important to someone else, but couldn’t gather together the right words. Instead, I’d find pieces of fiction and think, “Here, instead of telling them what I need to, this will show them in a way that they will understand instinctively. That, my friends, is the importance of fiction: understanding.