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About this quote

What does it mean?
Reality can be unlikely, but stories must feel plausible to engage the reader's imagination.
In plain terms
Stories need to make sense even if real life does not.
What can you take from it?
Writers must balance truth with believability.

Where it applies

  • storytelling
  • reading
  • crafting

Putting it to work

  • write plausibly
  • suspend disbelief
  • craft narratives

Questions to consider

  • How much truth does a story need?
  • When do you stop believing?

Another view

Some genres like fantasy thrive on impossibility.

More from Jorge Luis Borges

  1. Life itself is a quotation.

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  2. Life and death have been lacking in my life.

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  3. A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose…

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