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Quote by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

“Readers themselves, I think, contribute to a book. They add their own imaginations, and it is as though the writer only gave them something to work on, and they did the rest.”

Quote by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Author

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an American author renowned for her works set in the Florida Everglades. Her novel 'The Yearling' earned her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1939. Born on August 8, 1896, Rawlings passed away on December 14, 1953. more

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“You kin tame a bear. You kin tame a wild-cat and you kin tame a panther. ... You kin tame arything, son, excusin' the human tongue.”

Humans Talking Son Bears Speech Cat Tongue Panthers

Book:The Yearling

Source: The Yearling

“A dead tree, falling, made less havoc than a live one. It seemed as though a live tree went down fighting, like an animal.”

Made Fall Fighting Animal Tree Havoc Dead Trees

Author:Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

“Personal publicity is apt to be dangerous to any writer's integrity; for the moment he begins to fancy himself as quite a person, a taint creeps into his work.”

Persons Moments Dangerous Integrity Fancy Publicity Creeps

Author:Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

“Hemingway, damn his soul, makes everything he writes terrifically exciting (and incidentally makes all us second-raters seem positively adolescent) by the seemingly simple expedient of the iceberg principle - three-fourths of the substance under the surface. He comes closer that way to retaining the magic of the original, unexpressed idea or emotion, which is always more stirring than any words. But just try and do it!”

Way Writing Trying Ideas Soul Seems Three Simple Emotion Principles Magic Exciting Originals Surface Substance Damn Positively Stirring Iceberg Retaining

Author:Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

“it is my conviction that the personality of the writer has nothing to do with the literate product of his mind. And publicity in this case embarrasses me because I am acutely conscious of how far short the book falls of the artistry I am struggling to achieve. It's like being caught half-dressed.”

Mind Book Fall Half Cases Struggle Achieve Products Personality Conscious Caught Conviction Publicity Artistry

Author:Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

“people in general are totally unable to detach the personality of a writer from the products of his thinking.”

People Thinking Products Personality

Author:Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

“I have found that each of my books has developed out of something I have written in a previous book. Some thought evidently unfinished.”

Book Found Written Unfinished

Author:Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

“But to make the intangible tangible, to pick the emotion out of the air and make it true for others, is both the blessing and the curse of the writer, for the thing between book covers is never as beautiful as the thing he imagined.”

Book Beautiful Emotion Air Blessing Picks Curse Tangible Intangible Book Covers

Author:Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

“English life, while very pleasant, is rather bland. I expected kindness and gentility and I found it, but there is such a thing as too much couth.”

Found Kindness Too Much Expected Pleasant Bland Gentility

Author:S. J. Perelman

“There is something about a home aquarium which sets my teeth on edge the moment I see it. Why anyone would want to live with a small container of stagnant water populated by a half-dead guppy is beyond me.”

Want Moments Home Water Half Edges Teeth Stagnant Containers Aquariums Stagnant Water

Author:S. J. Perelman