I still believe nonfiction is the most important literature to come out of the second half of the 20th century.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I've written fiction... but the nonfiction has always received the most attention.
In ages past, there was less of a dichotomy between good literature and fun reads. In the twentieth century, I think, it split apart, so that you had serious fiction and genre fiction.
I find that nonfiction writers are the likeliest to turn out interesting novels.
Fiction is harder for me than nonfiction - more gratifying, as a result, when it succeeds.
Fiction is no longer the dominant storytelling device of our time. In the 19th century it worked great, and fiction was the king, but it's not the king any more.
It's been said that I am the most widely read writer of the 20th century. The number of books I've sold runs into untold millions.
I read almost exclusively nonfiction when I read, because even though it's harder to find a great true story, when you find one, the idea that it actually happened is immensely powerful.That's what moves me the most.
I tend to read more nonfiction, really, because when I'm writing I don't like to read other fiction.
I don't do nonfiction anymore. Eventually, you just feel constrained by the facts. You want to go where the words take you, and people's actual lives don't always conform. And you can't know them that well.
In my opinion, the most significant works of the twentieth century are those that rise beyond the conceptual tyranny of genre; they are, at the same time, poetry, criticism, narrative, drama, etc.