“What are the hallmarks of a competent writer of fiction? The first, it seems to me, is that he should be immensely interested in human beings, and have an eye sharp enough to see into them, and a hand clever enough to draw them as they are. The second is that he should be able to set them in imaginary situations which display the contents of their psyches effectively, and so carry his reader swiftly and pleasantly from point to point of what is called a good story.” ShouldFirstsHumansEnoughStoriesHandsSeemsEyeAbleHuman BeingsFictionSituationReaderDrawsCleverDisplayImaginaryCompetentGood StoryHallmarkPsych Author:H. L. Mencken
“I like to be aware of a book as a piece of writing, and aware of its structure as a product of mind, and yet I want to be able to see the represented world through it. I admire artists who succeed in dividing my attention more or less evenly between the world of their books and the art of their books . . . so that a reader may study the work with pleasure as well as the world that it describes.” WorldWantWritingMindWellsMayArtBookAbleArtistPleasureAttentionStudyPiecesProductsReaderSucceedStructureAdmireDividing Author:Annie Dillard
“Robert Frost says in a piece of homely doggerel that he has hoped wisdom could be not only Attic but Laconic, Boeotian even - "at least not systematic"; but how systematically Frostian the worst of his later poems are! His good poems are the best refutation of, the most damning comment on, his bad: his Complete Poems have the air of being able to educate any faithful reader into tearing out a third of the pages, reading a third, and practically wearing out the rest.” AbleReadingPiecesAirWorstReaderPagesThirdsFaithfulCommentEducateSystematicFrostHaving HopeAtticsHomelyRefutationLaconic Author:Randall Jarrell
“One reader is better than another in proportion as he is able of a greater range of activity in reading and exerts more effort.” AbleReadingEffortGreaterReaderActivityRangeProportion Author:Mortimer Adler
“The reader can test his own psychology by asking himself whether he would consider, in retrospect, the selling at 156 in 1925 and buying back at 109 in 1931 was a satisfactory operation. Some may think that an intelligent investor should have been able to sell out much closer to the high of 381 and to buy back nearer the low of 41. If that is your own view you are probably a speculator at heart and will have trouble keeping to true investment precepts while the market rushes up and down.” IfsThinkingShouldHeartMayHas BeensAbleViewsPsychologyTroubleReaderLowsShould HaveTestsIntelligentAskingSellsInvestmentSellingOperationsBuyingInvestorsUp And DownShould Have BeenRetrospectSpeculators Author:Benjamin Graham
“As readers, we want not only a strong story, but also characters we can relate to, characters that feel real. We have to find something of ourselves in them. Each character, even those only there to serve the mechanics of the plot, should have a number of layers. The entire world you are stepping into as a reader must feel real. It must have resonance, you must be able to touch the light; smell the smells.” WorldWantFeelsShouldRealCharacterStoriesLightAbleStrongNumbersReaderShould HaveSmellRelatePlotLayersMechanicResonance Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon
“... when we are misunderstood it is always our own fault. What the reader wants most of all is to be able to grasp what we think; but you loftily refuse to comply.” ThinkingWantAbleReaderFaultsRefuseMisunderstood Book:Flaubert-Sand: The Correspondence of Gustave Flaubert & George Sand Source: Flaubert-Sand: The Correspondence of Gustave Flaubert & George Sand
“Many of us write because we are readers and have grown up in a long tradition, and we want to be able to add to that extraordinary flow of interpretations of the world.” WorldWantWritingLongAbleReaderTraditionFlowAddExtraordinaryInterpretation Author:Rosellen Brown