Fiction Writers Are Liars and Thieves

“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—T...