“Early on, a story's meaning and rationale seem pretty obvious, but then, as I write it, I realize that I know the meaning/rationale too well, which means that the reader will also know it - and so things have to be ramped up.” KnowsWritingWellsMeanStoriesSeemsRealizingReaderObviousRationale Book:Tenth of December Source: Tenth of December
“First and foremost, I consider myself a storyteller. And I'm endlessly fascinated with people, with what they do and why... and how they feel about it. Which means I'm interested in romance fiction. I was drawn to it, as both a reader and a writer, at the very beginning of my career. It's my kind of storytelling.” PeopleFeelsFirstsKindMeanRomanceFictionCareersReaderStorytellingFascinatedStoryteller Author:Debbie Macomber
“When I taught, a lot of my students weren't big readers, so they would write something and I realized that they thought it belonged in a book. Like, they didn't know what the inside of a book looked like, you know what I mean?” KnowsWritingMeanBookBigsStudentsTaughtLike YouReaderI Realized Author:David Sedaris
“I wish I could have a little tape-and-loudspeaker arrangement sewn into the binding of this magazine, to be triggered off by the light reflected from the reader's eyes on to this part of the page, and set to bawl out at several bels: MORE WILL MEAN WORSE.” MeanLittlesLightEyeWishReaderPagesMagazinesTapeArrangementsBinding Author:Kingsley Amis
“Labels don't mean much to me one way or another -- except when they close the minds of potential readers. I'd much rather we do away with genres and simply file everything under fiction. I know it can work -- one of my favourite record stores (Waterloo Music in Austin) simply files everything alphabetically and no one seems to have much problem finding what they're looking for.” KnowsWayMindMeanProblemSeemsFictionRecordsReaderFindingsStoresOne WayLabelsGenreFavouriteFilesAustinRecord StoresWaterloo Author:Charles de Lint
“I like delivering a message, but what I find interesting is providing those details in a different context. Then the readers can make up their minds what it means.” MindMeanDifferentInterestingReaderMessagesDetailsProvidingDelivering Author:Jeff VanderMeer
“Underneath all his writing there is the settled determination to use certain words, to take certain attitudes, to produce a certain atmosphere; what he is seeing or thinking or feeling has hardly any influence on the way he writes. The reader can reply, ironically, "That's what it means to have a style"; but few people have so much of one, or one so obdurate that you can say of it, "It is a style that no subject can change.” PeopleThinkingWayWritingMeanUseFeelingsCertainAttitudeSeeingInfluenceSubjectsStyleProduceReaderDeterminationAtmosphere Author:Randall Jarrell
“It is the specialist's task to talk about means, about centimeters. An artist's task is to talk about the goal, about kilometers, thousands of kilometers. The organizing role of art consists of infecting the reader, of arousing him with pathos or irony -- the cathode and anode in literature. But irony that is measured in centimeters is pathetic, and centimeter-sized pathos is ridiculous. No one can be carried away by it. To stir the reader, the artist must speak not of means but of ends, of the great goal toward which mankind is moving.” InspirationalMeanArtEndsMovingArtistLiteratureSpeakGoalRolesMankindReaderTasksRidiculousIronyPatheticSpecialistsCarried AwayPathos Author:Yevgeny Zamyatin
“I mean, my dad's a television producer, and I knew I could get a job as an assistant or a reader with one of his friends, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do.” MeanWantedJobsTelevisionReaderDadMy DadProducersAssistants Author:J. J. Abrams
“Sometimes one's very angry and preaches, but I know that to clinch a point is to close it. To leave the reader free to decide what your work means, that's the real art; it makes the work inexhaustible.” KnowsMeanArtRealSometimesReaderAngry Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
“You asked if I thought my fiction had changed anything in the culture and the answer is no. Sure, there's been some scandal, but people are scandalized all the time; it's a way of life for them. It doesn't mean a thing. If you ask if I want my fiction to change anything in the culture, the answer is still no. What I want is to possess my readers while they are reading my book if I can, to possess them in ways that other writers don't. Then let them return, just as they were, to a world where everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt, and control them.” PeopleIfsWorldWayWantMeanStillsI CanBookCultureReadingAsksAnswersFictionChangedReturnReaderScandal Book:Conversations with Philip Roth Source: Conversations with Philip Roth
“Children make better readers than adults. They read as carefully as I write; adults read as a means of getting off to sleep. I get letters saying 'I have read your book seventeen times.' If you're an adult novelist and you get that letter, you should be afraid. You're being stalked. Kids always read them seventeen times!” IfsShouldWritingMeanChildrenBookKidsSleepReaderAdultsLettersNovelistsSeventeen Author:Daniel Pinkwater
“A book , once it is printed and published, becomes individual. It is by its publication as decisively severed from its author as in parturition a child is cut off from its parent. The book "means" thereafter, perforce, both grammatically and actually, whatever meaning this or that reader gets out of it.” MeanChildrenBookIndividualParentCuttingReaderPrintedPublication Book:The Works of James Branch Cabell: Towsend of Lichfield Source: The Works of James Branch Cabell: Towsend of Lichfield