James Frey Explains Himself
You may think I’m a dick or arrogant or delusional or whatever, and frankly it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve written four books. Published in thirty-nine languages. I sold millions and millions and millions of copies. Do I want to be more famous? I could give a shit. Do I want to publish in more languages? There are a few left. What matters to me is a hundred years from now when people look back at our time, what writers are they gonna say, “Holy fuck!” I think I am and will be one of those people….
You keep saying “fiction” and “nonfiction”! Those words don’t mean anything to me. You think in today’s world there is some greater thing called truth? You know what’s truth? I’ll give you some fucking truth. Truth is when I watched my fucking kid die in my wife’s arms. That’s fucking truth. That’s truth. What happens here, what happens on the TV screen, that’s all fucking fiction!