This quote has been driving me insane. I though at first it sounded Chuck Palahniuk-y, but I think I was just confusing it with “On a long enough timeline, the survival chances of everyone drops to zero.” (which, admitedly, is the same sentiment.)
Then I though John Green, but that’s not quite right. I can’t find it in John Irvings books either. Is it Gaiman? I have no idea.
Does this ring a bell for anyone? Help?
Neil Gaiman. Sandman.
Issue 6, I believe. “24 Hours”. It’s the one featured in the diner where Doctor Dee tortures and kills everyone. The waitress writes stories about her customers and that’s how she says she always gets a happy ending.
ETA: At least I think so. I can’t find my copy.
I don’t have a copy nearby, but that matches my memory.
Aha! Sandman quotes.
Brilliant! Thanks you so much.
“All true stories, if continued long enough, end in death” belongs to Hemingway.
In one of his screenplays, Orson Welles wrote, “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” But, as we are seeing, more than one great writer managed to arrive at this nugget of wisdom.
According towikiquote, it’s from Chapter 11 of Death in the Afternoon (1932):
Not sure what the context is, there. But I begin to suspect that Gaiman may have been hinting that Bette was no true-story teller.