“Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experience he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.” KnowsGivingWritingHas BeensPainHeavenHoursChanceJourneyReaderBitterHeartacheRelaxationTediumBitter Experience Book:The Moon and Sixpence Source: The Moon and Sixpence
“In presenting a mathematical argument the great thing is to give the educated reader the chance to catch on at once to the momentary point and take details for granted: two trivialities omitted can add up to an impasse). The unpractised writer, even after the dawn of a conscience, gives him no such chance; before he can spot the point he has to tease his way through a maze of symbols of which not the tiniest suffix can be skipped.” WayGivingTwoChanceReaderConscienceArgumentAddDetailsAccidentsGreat ThingsEducatedSpotsSymbolsGrantedMathematicalDawnPresentingTeaseMomentaryMazesTrivialityImpasse Author:John Edensor Littlewood
“Nowadays when a poet with one privately printed book can have his next three years taken care of by a Guggenheim fellowship, a Kenyon Review fellowship, and the Prix de Rome, it is hard to remember what chances the poet took in that small-town world, how precariously hand-to-mouth his existence was. And yet in one way the old days were better; [Vachel] Lindsay after a while, by luck and skill, got far more readers than any poet could get today.” WorldWayYearsBookHardHandsCareTodayRememberThreeNextChanceExistenceTakenPoetReaderSkillsMouthsTownsLuckOne WayReviewsRomeThree YearsSmall TownFellowshipPrintedOld DaysLuck And SkillPrinted Books Author:Randall Jarrell
“I have come to believe that large print, thick and heavy paper, and wide margins and oversize leading is indicative of the expected intelligence of the reader. … Compare children's books and books on Web Duhsign or other X-in-21-days books. If the reading level of a specification is below college level, chances are the people behind it are morons and the result morose.” PeopleIfsBelieveChildrenBookReadingChanceLevelsResultsBehindsCollegeReaderPaperHeavyWideExpectedComparePrintThickMarginsChances AreMoronChildren's BooksMoroseSpecifications Author:Erik Naggum
“Paranormal fiction offers authors - and readers - the chance to answer the question, what if? All the different ways that question can be answered make for extremely entertaining reading.” IfsWayDifferentReadingChanceAnswersFictionReaderOffersDifferent WaysParanormalWhat IfEntertaining Author:Jeaniene Frost
“With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. This is what I undertake to do for you, reader.” BookPastChanceVisionReaderMirrorsReachingInkEgyptian Book:Adam Bede Source: Adam Bede
“I've always been a fast reader. Now I had to do it slowly, discussing each sentence. And every time I wanted to change something I had to come up with an intelligent defense I could be pretty sure that they would turn my suggestion down, as they had so many aspects to keep in mind. However, if I argued well, I could have a chance. I had to think of every comma, every word.” IfsThinkingMindWellsWantedTurnsChanceReaderAspectIntelligentCome UpSentencesDefenseSuggestionsDiscussing Author:Karl Ove Knausgard
“in reading ... stories, you can be many different people in many different places, doing things you would never have a chance to do in ordinary life. It's amazing that those twenty-six little marks of the alphabet can arrange themselves on the pages of a book and accomplish all that. Readers are lucky - they will never be bored or lonely.” PeopleLittlesBookDifferentStoriesReadingChanceReaderLuckySixPagesOrdinaryLonelyMarkTwentiesAccomplishBoredDifferent PeoplesBook ReadingDifferent PlaceAlphabetOrdinary LifeReading Stories Author:Natalie Babbitt
“On a more technical level, a story takes a lot of words. And to generate words and phrases and images and so on, that will compel the reader to continue reading - that stand a chance of really grabbing a reader - the writer has to work out of a place of, let's say, familiarity and affection. The matrix of the story has to be made out of stuff the writer really knows about and likes. The writer can't be stretching and (purely) inventing all the time. Well, I can't, anyway.” KnowsWellsMadeI CanStoriesReadingStuffChanceLevelsReaderAffectionWork OutLikesPhrasesFamiliarityStretchingInventingGrabbing Author:George Saunders
“I think what is important for things to be funny is if you the listener, or the reader, get a chance to supply the humor of it yourself.” IfsThinkingImportantChanceReaderListeners Author:Ian Frazier
“The paradox of publicity is that even as we do it, we know it's killing off the chance of another reader happening across our book in the ideal state of innocence.” KnowsBookStatesChanceReaderHappeningsIdealsKillingInnocenceParadoxPublicity Author:Emma Donoghue
“... when one reflects on the books one never has written, and never may, though their schedules lie in the beautiful chirography which marks the inception of an unexpressed thought upon the pages of one's notebook, one is aware, of any given idea, that the chances are against its ever being offered to one's dearest readers.” MayBookIdeasBeautifulLyingGivenChanceWrittenReaderPagesMarkSchedulesChances AreNotebookInception Author:Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward