For me writing is about story. Plot, Character, Setting and Mood... That kind of stuff. Truth is less of interest to me than realism, but in order to make the unreal feel real, you have to base it on some kind of truth... which sort of circles us around to the what dialyn said, hunh? That "single sentance" thingy, though... it sounds like it might be about right for poetry, but for a novel wouldn't general excellence be of more use than one point of perfection, amid 100 000 words of otherstuff?