The only form of fiction in which real characters do not seem out of place is history. In novels they are detestable.
Oscar WildeWhen our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale. A curious sensation of terror came over me. I knew that I had come face to face with some one whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.
Oscar WildeSchopenhauer has analysed the pessimism that characterize modern thought, but Hamlet invented it
Oscar WildeIn fact, the whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.... The Japanese people are ... simply a mode of style, an exquisite fancy of art.
Oscar Wilde