Article image

Fantasy Authors on the Magic of Imagination

Humans are a storytelling species, and for as long as we have told stories, fantasy, in one way or another, has existed. From the oldest recorded folktales to the Epic of Gilgamesh, from Beowulf to One Thousand and One Nights, elements of fantasy have always been present in literature. As a definable literary genre, however, modern fantasy began in the 19th century, with novels such as George MacDonald’s 1858 Phantastes and William Morris’ 1896 The Well at the World’s End.

It wasn’t until the mid-20th century, however, that fantasy began to reach a wider audience and establish itself as a more “serious” genre. Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian brought sword and sorcery into the mainstream, C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, and Ursula K. Le Guin began her Earthsea series. But it was J.R.R. Tolkien who changed the genre forever. His epic high fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, remains the most influential work of modern fantasy fiction ever written.

All of this, of course, would have been impossible without imagination. Middle-earth wouldn’t exist, there would be no adventures for Alice in Wonderland, and dragons would never have flown above Westeros. Thankfully, we have fantasy authors, for whom imagination lies at the very heart of their craft. As the following quotes show, they have a deep love and respect for the magical power of the imagination.

I believe that dreams — day dreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain-machinery whizzing — are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to create, to invent, and therefore to foster civilization.
L. Frank Baum

Share Quote

For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of truth, but its condition.
C.S. Lewis

Share Quote

Imagination, not intelligence, made us human.
Terry Pratchett

Share Quote

I think the imagination is the single most useful tool mankind possesses. It beats the opposable thumb. I can imagine living without my thumbs, but not without my imagination.
Ursula K. Le Guin

Share Quote

I seem to move easily between the world of imagination and the world of reality, one inspiring the other. I’ve tended to use my imagination to confront reality, rather than escape it. Maybe that’s the secret.
Michael Moorcock

Share Quote

In A Song of Ice and Fire, I take stuff from the Wars of the Roses and other fantasy things, and all these things work around in my head and somehow they jell into what I hope is uniquely my own. But I don’t know where it comes from, yet it comes — it’s always come. If I was a religious guy, I’d say it’s a gift from God, but I’m not, so I can’t say that.
George R.R. Martin

Share Quote

I want you, as a reader, to experience what I experience, to let that other world, that imaginary world that I have created, tell you things about the real world. I want to kick-start your imagination and let you discover the places it can take you.
Terry Brooks

Share Quote

The mental power of image-making is one thing, or aspect; and it should appropriately be called Imagination. The perception of the image, the grasp of its implications, and the control, which are necessary to a successful expression, may vary in vividness and strength: but this is a difference of degree in Imagination, not a difference in kind.
J.R.R. Tolkien

Share Quote

Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and look out through other eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know.
Neil Gaiman

Share Quote

Fairy stories loosen the chains of the imagination. They give you things to think with — images to think with — and the sense that all kinds of things are possible. While at the same time being ridiculous or terrifying or consolatory. Or something else altogether, as well.
Philip Pullman

Share Quote

The more imagination the reader has, being an untrained reader, the more he will do for himself. He will, at a mere hint from the author, flood wretched material with suggestion and never guess that he is himself chiefly making what he enjoys.
C.S. Lewis

Share Quote

Nothing awesome has happened without imagination. You can go to the Wright Brothers, the first people to create an airplane, and say: “This is a fantasy flying in the air,” and if you don’t have the creativity and imagination to imagine a different world, you are never gonna do anything wonderful.
Brandon Sanderson

Share Quote


Photo credit: waldemarbrandt67w/ Unsplash

Author image
About the Author
Tony Dunnell
Tony is an English writer of non-fiction and fiction living on the edge of the Amazon jungle.
Play more header background
Play more icon
Daily Question
Who said, "Jump off the cliff and learn how to make wings on the way down"?

More Inspiration

happiness theme icon

Maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it.

separator icon
Jodi Picoult
motivation theme icon

When we sow a seed, we plant a narrative of future possibility.

separator icon
Sue Stuart-Smith
hope theme icon

Time is how you spend your love.

separator icon
Nick Laird
love theme icon

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.

separator icon
Richard Bach
wisdom theme icon

From our first babblings to our last word, we make but one statement, and that is our life.

separator icon
Richard Paul Evans
happiness theme icon

Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible.

separator icon
George Saunders
motivation theme icon

The time to make up your mind about people, is never.

separator icon
Philip Barry
hope theme icon

It is not worthy of a human being to give up.

separator icon
Alva Myrdal
love theme icon

The beginning of wisdom is to do away with fear.

separator icon
Yohannes Gebregeorgis
wisdom theme icon

The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.

separator icon
Epicurus
happiness theme icon

There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.

separator icon
Euripides