It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, no matter how suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true.
Source: French Letters: Theories of the New Novel, in Encounter (London), Dec 1967.
-- Gore Vidal, (Oct 3 1925-2012), US novelist, dramatist, critic; He is known for his irreverent and intellectually adroit novels, e.g.,Burr, 1973 and Lincoln: A Novel, 1984.