“I can tell you that as a writer and as a reader, I regard character as king. Or queen. No matter how riveting the action or interesting the plot twists, if I don't feel like I'm meeting someone who feels real, I'm not going to be compelled to read further.” IfsFeelsI CanRealMatterCharacterActionInterestingReaderKingsRegardMeetingsQueensPlotCompelledTwistsMeeting SomeonePlot Twists Author:Maggie Stiefvater
“I must confess that I'm not a great reader. At the moment I'm reading my son's 'Stig of the Dump' by Clive King and I've got a plant catalogue on the go.” MomentsReadingSonReaderKingsPlantMy SonDumpCataloguesStig Author:Sophie Thompson
“Do you solemnly swear never to conceal a vital clue from the reader? Do you promise to observe seemly moderation in the use of gangs, conspiracies, Super Criminals and Lunatics and utterly and forever to forswear Mysterious Poisons unknown to science? Will you honor the King's English? ... If you fail to keep your promise, may other writers steal your plots and your pages swarm with misprints.” IfsMayUseNovelForeverFailingMysteryReaderKingsHonorPromisePagesCriminalsStealingMysteriousPoisonPlotConspiracySwearModerationClueGangSwarmsMystery Novels Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
“The high-ceilinged rooms, the little balconies, alcoves, nooks and angles all suggest sanctuary, escape, creature comfort. The reader, the scholar, the browser, the borrower is king.” LittlesRoomsReaderKingsComfortCreaturesScholarAngleSanctuaryBalconiesBorrowersBrowsersCreature Comforts Author:David McCord
“How much he was shaped by being in the hospital so much as a kid. Because he was sick, he was a reader, and because he was a reader, Kennedy had heroes. Because he had heroes, he went into politics. [Kennedy liked Sir Walter Scott, King Arthur's knights, and biographies of political leaders.] If he hadn't been sick, he might have been like everybody else in the family, a jock.” IfsHas BeensMightKidsPoliticalLeaderReaderKingsHeroSickHospitalsBiographiesMight Have BeenKnightsArthurPolitical LeadersJocksKing Arthur Author:Chris Matthews
“Novels are routinely denigrated when characters are not found to be likable. Is Raskolnikov likable? Is King Lear? The plethora of such naive readers testifies to a failure of imagination - the capacity to see into unfamiliar lives, motives, feelings - and this failure must, at least in part, be the failure of the teaching of literature in the schools.” CharacterFeelingsSchoolFoundLiteratureImaginationNovelTeachingReaderKingsCapacityMotiveNaiveUnfamiliarLearRaskolnikov Author:Cynthia Ozick
“Stephen King has the exact ability that Charles Dickens had. To get to his readers in spite of or despite anything the reviews say.” AbilityReaderKingsDespiteSpiteReviewsDickens Author:Frederick Busch
“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” ShouldWritingImaginationReaderKingsDescription Author:Stephen King