A great writer reveals the truth even when he or she does not wish to. Tom Bissell More Quotes by Tom Bissell More Quotes From Tom Bissell Reading gives one something to think about other than one's self. Tom Bissell readingbookthinking We are no longer worried that children are missing school because of video games, though. We are worried that they are murdering their classmates because of video games. Tom Bissell gameschildrenschool Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer-so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible. Tom Bissell imitationseductiveimpossible To create anything… is to believe, if only momentarily, you are capable of magic. Tom Bissell magicifsbelieve Fun is not the same thing as fulfillment. Tom Bissell fulfillmentfun When I play too many video games I begin to feel chubby-minded, caffeinated, bad. Tom Bissell videogamesplay Girlfriends, indeed: the anti-video game. Tom Bissell videogirlfriendgames An artist can respect the backfield of fact before which every human being stands and choose not to address those facts. Tom Bissell addressesartistfacts To create anything — whether a short story or a magazine profile or a film or a sitcom — is to believe, if only momentarily, you are capable of magic. These essays are about that magic — which is sometimes perilous, sometimes infectious, sometimes fragile, sometimes failed, sometimes infuriating, sometimes triumphant, and sometimes tragic. I went up there. I wrote. I tried to see. Tom Bissell magicstoriesbelieve [M]y first published book had just appeared in stores. The last year of my life-the year of finishing it, editing it, and seeing it through its various page-proof passes-ranks among the most unnerving of my young life. It has not felt good, or freeing. It has felt nerve-shreddingly disquieting. Publication simply allows one that much more to worry about. This cannot be said to aspiring writers often or sternly enough. Whatever they carry within themselves they believe publication cures will not, I can all but guarantee, be cured. You just wind up with new diseases. Tom Bissell editingbelievebook Most non-readers are nothing but an agglomeration of third-hand opinion and blindly received wisdom. Tom Bissell opinionreaderhands Games tell stories best when they're elliptical and ambiguous and there's a sense of roaming and freedom. Tom Bissell besttellfreedomgames My fiction-writing DNA shows in how I think about prose, how I think about the page, how I think nonfiction stories should work. And every piece of nonfiction I write, I want it to have fictional texture. Tom Bissell howthinkwantwork I have an immensely understanding partner who does something creative herself, and we both need a lot of time alone. I structure my life around getting my work done, first and foremost. Everything else is secondary. That's the only way I've been able to do it. Tom Bissell aloneworktimelife I like reading books with both hands, with my heart pumping, with blood on the page. So I'm interested in people who make stuff, and I'm interested in the lives that make the text. To read a book or watch a movie any other way, to me, personally, feels like a waste of time and misapplication of energy. Tom Bissell mehearttimepeople I view myself as a fiction writer who just happens to write nonfiction. I think I look at the world through a fiction-writer's eyes. Tom Bissell eyesmyselflookworld The average action game doesn't much traffic in thematic grandiosity, but the BioShock games are different. Tom Bissell gametrafficdifferentaction The underwater businessman philosopher Andrew Ryan was BioShock's unforgettable villain. Tom Bissell ryanunderwaterunforgettablevillain I guess I would say that most of what I've learned about storytelling derives from novels and short stories. I cannot think of a novel or story, or a novelist or story writer, who thinks in terms of three-act structure. Tom Bissell shortsaystorythink All the stuff I love most in game storytelling is never the big-picture stuff; it's the stuff that feels like curlicues, stuff that's just there because it's a game and because you can do it. Tom Bissell gameyouyou-can-do-itlove
