Fiction Writers Are Liars and Thieves (Audio cassette)

“Someone has said that fiction by definition is a lie. By extension this means that fiction writers are liars. In that context, I will admit to it, and go a step further. I will say that fiction writers are thieves.”

With that opening confession, novelist Elmer Kelton, for over forty years a livestock journalist, discusses the relationship between his two careers and the way in which his journalistic writing served as a source for his novels. To illustrate, he reads from four of his novels—The Time It Never Rained, The Day the Cowboys Quit, The Good Old Boys, and Manhunters—contrasting historical incidents with their use in his fiction. Both fact and fiction come alive when read in Kelton's West Texas voice, the same voice which distinguishes his fiction from most other western writing.