This is true. Wood frame construction is generally among the safer places to be in an earthquake. The house can give and flex with the shaking, but not fall down on top of you. The house may damaged enough so as to be not be repairable afterwords, but you will likely live through the quake.

There are some exceptions to this, of course. If your house is built on ground prone to landslide, the house may be ripped apart. This is what happened in many of the photos you may have seen of the '64 Alaska Earthquake. Many of the deaths in Anchorage were in the "Turnagain Heights" area, where part of the subdivision was destroyed in a landslide.

The other thing that will get you in a wood frame house is things inside the house falling on you. Tall bookcases with heavy potted plants on top are not a good idea in earthquake country!