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Reader Quotes

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Reader Quotes

“The first person you should think of pleasing, in writing a book, is yourself. If you can amuse yourself for the length of time it takes to write a book, the publisher and the readers can and will come later.”

Ifs Thinking Should Writing Firsts Persons Book Reader Length Publishers Writing A Book First Person

Author:Patricia Highsmith

“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.”

Ifs May Use Novel Forever Failing Mystery Reader Kings Honor Promise Pages Criminals Stealing Mysterious Poison Plot Conspiracy Swear Moderation Clue Gang Swarms Mystery Novels

Author:Dorothy L. Sayers

“Poems reveal secrets when they are analyzed. The poet's pleasure in finding ingenious ways to enclose her secrets should be matched by the reader's pleasure in unlocking and revealing these secrets.”

Way Should Pleasure Secret Poet Reader Findings Revealing Ingenious Matched Unlocking

Author:Diane Wakoski

“Proust has been dead since 1922, yet the annual appearance of his posthumous works has left him, to the reader, alive. Now there is nothing left to publish. Five years after his interment, Proust seems dead for the first time.”

Years Firsts Has Beens Seems Left Five Alive Reader First Time Appearance Five Years Publish Annuals Proust Posthumous

Author:Janet Flanner

“By the age of three ... I was already an addicted reader. I still crave daily immersion in experience other than my own; (it needn't be more pleasant, exciting or illuminating -- merely other) and I still fall into books as though into catalepsy.”

Stills Book Age Fall Three My Own Reader Exciting Pleasant Crave Illuminating Immersion

Author:Brigid Brophy

“We waste a lot of time and a lot of talent trying to write for the common reader, whom we will never meet. Instead we should be writing for our ideal reader.”

Should Writing Trying Common Talent Reader Waste Ideals

Author:Julia Cameron

“I try not to bore my readers.”

Trying Reader Bores

Author:Jackie Collins

“The average reader can contemplate with considerable fortitude the sorrows and disappointments of someone else.”

Compassion Reader Sorrow Average Disappointment Contemplating Fortitude

Author:Nellie L. McClung

“A single glance at the map will make the reader acquainted with the position of the eastern coast of the island of Great Britain, as connected with the shores of the opposite continent.”

Book Position Reader Opposites Connected Islands Britain Maps Shore Continents Glances Coast Eastern Great Britain

Author:James F. Cooper

“It was not the purpose of poetry to record anything and everything, to merely describe either the outer world or some subjective mood, but to speak from the imagination of the poet to the imagination of the reader.”

World Purpose Speak Imagination Records Poet Reader Mood Subjective Outer Worlds Anything And Everything

Author:Kathleen Raine

“I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.”

Life Inspirational Science Understanding Reader Speed Feel Good Speed Reading

Book:Yours, Isaac Asimov: A Lifetime of Letters

Source: Yours, Isaac Asimov: A Lifetime of Letters

“Captures the reader with true magic.”

Magic Reader Capture

Author:Esther M. Friesner

“There are other great writers who are not read properly in their own day for the reason, perhaps, that their readers are not yet born. What they have to say to their own generation is said so at cross-purposes and with such apparent irrelevance that it is not understood. They are, as it were, giants who tower above their own age to cast their shadows across the next.”

Said Reason Age Purpose Next Born Generations Reader Understood Shadow Crosses Casts Giants Towers Great Writers Irrelevance

Author:Caroline Gordon

“reading is a private act, private even from the person who wrote the book. Once the novel is out there, the author is beside the point. The reader and the book have their own relationship now, and should be left alone to work things out for themselves.”

Should Persons Book Reading Left Novel Reader Book Reading Left Alone

Book:This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

Source: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

“a bookstore is one of the few places where all the cantankerous, conflicting, alluring voices of the world co-exist in peace and order and the avid reader is as free as a person can possibly be, because she is free to choose among them.”

World Persons Book Order Voice Reader Bookstores Avid Alluring

Author:Jane Smiley

“Once in my childhood I had been eager to learn Irish; I thought to get leave to take lessons from an old Scripture-reader who spent a part of his time in the parish of Killinane, teaching such scholars as he could find to read their own language in the hope that they might turn to the only book then being printed in Irish, the Bible.”

Book Might Turns Language Teaching Childhood Reader Lessons Scripture Scholar Printed Parish

Book:The Kiltartan Poetry Book

Source: The Kiltartan Poetry Book

“the majority of critical, and plenty of uncritical, readers find quotations a bore.”

Reader Majority Critical Plenty Bores Quotations

Book:Streaks of life

Source: Streaks of life

“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.”

World Want Writing Long Able Reader Tradition Flow Add Extraordinary Interpretation

Author:Rosellen Brown

“A poem's life and death dependeth still Not on the poet's wits, but reader's will.”

Stills Poet Reader Wit Life And Death

Author:Alexander Brome

“A cultivated reader of history is domesticated in all families; he dines with Pericles, and sups with Titian.”

History Reader Dine

Book:Pleasures of Literature

Source: Pleasures of Literature

“A discursive student is almost certain to fall into bad company. Ten minutes with a French novel or a German rationalist have sent a reader away with a fever for life.”

Certain Fall Reading Company Novel Minutes Students Reader Ten Fever Bad Company

Book:Pleasures of Literature

Source: Pleasures of Literature

“A good reader is nearly as rare as a good writer. People bring their prejudices, whether friendly or adverse. They are lamp and spectacles, lighting and magnifying the page.”

People Reading Reader Pages Prejudice Friendly Lamps Lighting Good Writers Adverse Spectacles Magnifying

Book:Pleasures,objects and advantages of literature

Source: Pleasures,objects and advantages of literature

“From numberless books the fluttering reader, idle and inconstant, bears away the bloom that only clings to the outer leaf; but genius has its nectaries, delicate glands, and secrecies of sweetness, and upon these the thoughtful mind must settle in its labor, before the choice perfume of fancy and wisdom is drawn forth.”

Mind Book Choices Reading Bears Reader Genius Labor Settling Fancy Thoughtful Delicate Idle Leafs Sweetness Perfume Secrecy Fluttering Glands Thoughtful Mind

Book:Pleasures of Literature

Source: Pleasures of Literature

“I remember my fourth grade teacher reading 'Charlotte's Web' and 'Stuart Little' to us - both, of course, by E. B. White. His stories were genuinely funny, thought provoking and full of irony and charm. He didn't condescend to his readers, which was why I liked his books, and why I wasn't a big reader of other children's' books.”

“I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much.”

Knows Writing Suffering Moral Principles Reader Moral Principles

Book:The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished

Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished

“If the would-be writer studies people in their everyday lives and discovers how to make his characters in their quieter moods interesting to his readers, he will have learned far more than he can ever learn from the constant presentation of crises.”

People Ifs Character Would Be Interesting Study Reader Crisis Constant Everyday Mood Everyday Life Presentation

Book:On being an author

Source: On being an author

“Lucky are you, reader, if you happen not to be of that sex to whom it is forbidden all good things; to whom liberty is denied; to whom almost all virtues are denied; lucky are you if you are one of those who can be wise without its being a crime.”

Ifs Happens Sex Women Liberty Virtue Wise Crime Reader Lucky Good Things Denied Forbidden Being Wise

Author:Marie de Gournay

“Fiction structures an experience for the reader to live through. ... That is why people read: to have experiences.”

People Book Reading Fiction Reader Structure

Author:Bonnie Friedman

“In I Praise My Destroyer, Diane Ackerman demonstrates once again her love for the specific language that rises from the juncture of self and the natural world, and her skillful use of that language. Whether she turns her attention to the act of eating an apricot 'the color of shame and dawn,' or to 'the omnipotence of light,' or to grief when 'All the greens of summer have blown apart,' her linking of unique images, her energetic wit and whimsy, her compassionate investment in life, always bring new pleasures and perceptions to the reader.”

“here are the top three global resources getting scarcer in the twenty-first century: ozone layer, rain forest, people eager to read the fiction of others. That's right, folks. For the first time in I believe written history, there are far more fiction writers on earth than fiction readers.”

Source: A Year in Van Nuys

“Art forms render ideas accessible to readers who could not receive those insights in any other format.”

Art Ideas Form Reader Insight Format

Author:Sara Maitland

“I think Hemingway's [book] titles should be awarded first prize in any contest. Each of them is a poem, and their mysterious power over readers contributes to Hemingway's success. His titles have a life of their own, and they have enriched the American vocabulary.”

Thinking Should Firsts Book Reader Mysterious Titles Prize Contests Vocabulary Book Titles

Book:Shakespeare and Company

Source: Shakespeare and Company

“I think [James] Joyce sometimes enjoyed misleading his readers. He said to me that history was like that parlor game where someone whispers something to the person next to him, who repeats it not very distinctly to the next person, and so on until, by the time the last person hears it, it comes out completely transformed. Of course, as he explained to me, the meaning in Finnegans Wake is obscure because it is a 'nightpiece.' I think, too, that, like the author's sight, the work is often blurred.”

Thinking Persons Said Sometimes Lasts Courses Next Games Reader Sight Enjoyed Repeats Transformed Obscure Mislead Joyce Parlor Finnegans Wake Parlor Games

Author:Sylvia Beach

“No writer, however popular, disdains a reader, however humble.”

Reader Humble Disdain

Author:Vera Caspary

“The little dog-eared books in the meeting-house proved poor reading ... So many of them were about unnaturally good children who never did wrong, and unnaturally bad children who never did right. At the end there was always the word MORAL, in big capital letters, as if the readers were supposed to be too blind to find it for themselves, and it had to be put directly across the path for them to stumble over.”

Ifs Children Littles Book Ends Bigs Reading House Poor Education Moral Path Dog Reader Letters Blind Meetings Supposed To Be

Author:Annie Fellows Johnston

“language is magical - it's a form of conjuring. If you do it convincingly, readers will follow you.”

Ifs Form Language Reader Conjuring

Author:Ruth Ozeki

“Thoughts for Young Men abounds in reliable counsel and says - with a rare combination of seriousness and graciousness - the very things we need to hear. Young men, for whom it was written, will find it invaluable; but all Christians, men or women, young or old, can read it with lasting benefit. It deserves to be widely read and circulated, and will do spiritual good to every reader.”

Men Needs Christian Spiritual Young Written Reader Benefits Deserve Combination Young Man Lasting Seriousness Invaluable Graciousness

Author:Sinclair B. Ferguson

“To try to write better than you do now is to risk rejection and failure. But not to risk those things in an insult to yourself, to other writers, and to your readers.”

Writing Trying Risk Reader Rejection Insult Better Than You

Author:LouAnne Johnson

“I think you tell the story that has to be told. You tell the story that's the truth. You tell the story that readers will be interested in and should know about.”

Thinking Knows Should Stories Reader

Author:Andrew Ross Sorkin

“Kerry Cohen's powerful, transfixing story will be familiar to many women, most of whom won't want to admit it. In this heartfelt and authentic memoir, Cohen transcends the pain and shame of a promiscuous past, and leaves readers with a sense of hope and triumph.”

Want Stories Pain Past Powerful Reader Shame Memoir Familiar Triumph Heartfelt Promiscuous

Author:Janice Erlbaum

“I read The Conspiracy Against the Human Race and found it incredibly powerful writing. For me as a reader, it was less impactful as philosophy than as one writers ultimate confessional: an absolute horror story, where the self is the monster.”

Writing Humans Self Philosophy Stories Found Powerful Race Reader Horror Ultimate Absolutes Monsters Human Race Conspiracy Horror Stories

Author:Nic Pizzolatto

“When I settled to writing seriously, which would be in my 30s, I did expect to be published eventually, but my aspirations werent very high. A published book and a few appreciative readers was my idea of heaven.”

Writing Book Ideas Would Be Heaven Reader Aspiration Appreciative

Author:Jo Beverley

“Never far from a dining table, the characters in Heather A. Slomski's limpid and elegant debut collection are not given to melodramatics. Civility reigns, voices are not raised, much goes unsaid. But just beneath the sophisticated composure are longing, loss, heartbreak. And how intensely familiar is the table itself, which made this reader suddenly understand how much of our real life takes place there. Heather A. Slomski is truly a fresh voice on the scene, and The Lovers Set Down Their Spoons is that rare thing, a new book as innovative in its design as it is compulsively readable.”

“As a reader, coming to my reading as a writer immersed in fairytales, I cant help but notice in so many stories, plays, poems that I read, the sort of breadcrumbs of fairytale techniques, so Im very excited when I notice that.”

Play Helping Stories Reading Reader Excited Technique Cant Fairytale

Author:Kate Bernheimer

“To what or whom does Lizzie Harris direct the imperative title of her startling first book, Stop Wanting? To the reader, the narrator, to desire itself, or to lack? This is a work of complexly, ambiguously layered narratives and identities. The opening poem asserts I want to say what happened / but am suspicious of stories. These lines become an ars poetica for the whole of this painful and exceptional collection in which the unspeakable is stubbornly confronted by a searing eloquence. This is a commanding debut.”

“One demands two things of a poem. Firstly, it must be a well-made verbal object that does honor to the language in which it is written. Secondly, it must say something significant about a reality common to us all, but perceived from a unique perspective. What the poet says has never been said before, but, once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves.”

Wells Doe Made Said Two Reality Language Common Written Objects Poet Perspective Reader Honor Demand Unique Significant Two Things Validity Poetry By Famous Poets Unique Perspective

Author:W. H. Auden

“Fiercely original and uncommonly lovely, The Witch's Boy is equal parts enchanting and haunting. Kelly Barnhill is master of truly potent and unruly magic; luckily for readers, she chooses to use her powers for good.”

Use Boys Magic Masters Reader Equal Originals Lovely Witch Haunting Enchanting Unruly

Author:Anne Ursu

“Every time I start off a book or a story I feel like I'm developing a new style or approach for that individual story alone, and it sometimes feels as if readers are looking for the same style/approach from the same writer over and over again, which hasn't helped me in the publishing biz.”

Ifs Feels Book Sometimes Stories Individual Style Reader Approach Developing Publishing

Author:Scott Bradfield

“I was always a reader. In the fifth grade, I got some sort of prize for having read hundreds of books from the library.”

Book Reader Library Grades Prize Fifth Fifth Grade

Author:Vijay Seshadri

“The key of writing fiction isn't just to remove something that the reader or listener can easily imagine. It's not a matter of being coy, or withholding information. It's allowing for multiple possibilities, recognizing the complexity of human behavior, and making the world of a piece of fiction as marvelously confounding as the world we live in.”