Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.
- Source
- Following the Equator, ch. 15 (Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar), 1897
- Written
- 1897
About this quotation
Twain used the maxim as the epigraph to chapter 15 of his round-the-world travel book. The saying “truth is stranger than fiction” was already proverbial, and Twain’s addition explains why.