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Reader Quotes

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Reader Quotes

“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.”

Should Firsts Humans Enough Stories Hands Seems Eye Able Human Beings Fiction Situation Reader Draws Clever Display Imaginary Competent Good Story Hallmark Psych

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.”

World Want Writing Mind Wells May Art Book Able Artist Pleasure Attention Study Pieces Products Reader Succeed Structure Admire Dividing

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.”

Able Reading Pieces Air Worst Reader Pages Thirds Faithful Comment Educate Systematic Frost Having Hope Attics Homely Refutation Laconic

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.”

Able Reading Effort Greater Reader Activity Range Proportion

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.”

“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.”

World Want Feels Should Real Character Stories Light Able Strong Numbers Reader Should Have Smell Relate Plot Layers Mechanic Resonance

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.”

Thinking Want Able Reader Faults Refuse Misunderstood

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.”

World Want Writing Long Able Reader Tradition Flow Add Extraordinary Interpretation

Author:Rosellen Brown

“That I can read and be happy while I am reading, is a great blessing. Could I have remembered, as some men do, what I read, I should have been able to call myself an educated man. But that power I have never possessed. Something is always left--something dim and inaccurate--but still something sufficient to preserve the taste for more. I am inclined to think that it is so with most readers.”

Source: Anthony Trollope: The Chronicles of Barsetshire & The Palliser Novels (Unabridged): The Warden + The Barchester Towers + Doctor Thorne + Framley Parsonage + The Small House at Allington + The Last Chronicle of Barset + Can You Forgive Her? + The Prime Minister + Eustace Diamonds...

“And so, when I was a young writer I always worked hard on imagery, and I knew that the roots of imagery were the senses - and that if my readers could feel, taste and see what I was talking about, I would be able to tell them a story.”

Ifs Feels Hard Stories Would Be Able Young Talking Reader Taste Roots Senses Imagery Young Writers

Author:Adriana Trigiani

“The poet presents the imagination with images from life and human characters and situations, sets them all in motion and leaves itto the beholder to let these images take his thoughts as far as his mental powers will permit. This is why he is able to engage men of the most differing capabilities, indeed fools and sages together. The philosopher, on the other hand, presents not life itself but the finished thoughts which he has abstracted from it and then demands that the reader should think precisely as, and precisely as far as, he himself thinks. That is why his public is so small.”

“A reader should be able to identify a column without its byline or funny little picture on top purely by look or feel, or its turgidity ratio.”

Feels Should Looks Littles Able Reader Columns Ratios

Author:William Safire

“The longer you work in this business [movie], the more you start to be able to see the carpentry. You can see where things are going, and it's harder to surprise you, as a reader”

Able Reader Harder Surprise Carpentry

Author:David Benioff

“Philosophy treats of physics where a more careful knowledge is required because the problems which come under this head are numerous... So the reader of Ctesibius or Archimedes and the other writers of treatises of the same class will not be able to appreciate them unless he has been trained in these subjects by the philosophers.”

Has Beens Philosophy Problem Able Class Subjects Reader Appreciate Treats Philosopher Careful Physics

Author:Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

“Such humble talents as God had given me I will endeavour to put to their greatest use; if I am able to amuse, I will try to benefit too; and when I fell it my duty to speak unpalatable truth, with the help of God, I will speak it, through it be to the prejudice of my name and to the detriment of my reader's immediate pleasure as well as my own.”

Ifs Trying Wells Helping Use Able Names Speak Given My Own Pleasure Talent Duty Reader Benefits Prejudice Humble Endeavour

Author:Anne Bronte

“An able reader often discovers in other people's writings perfections beyond those that the author put in or perceived, and lends them richer meanings and aspects.”

People Writing Able Reader Aspect Perfection

Author:Michel de Montaigne

“I've just always been a reader. My grandmother just expressed the importance of literacy, if I said that correctly. She just always expressed the importance of being able to write and being able to read.”

Ifs Writing Said Able Reader Importance Grandmother Literacy My Grandmother

Author:Kevin Gates

“That is as true for fiction or non-fiction. The writer has to really know their subject. It is really important to remember that the readers are a lot smarter than the writer. Also, good writing has to do with rewriting. You will never get it right the first time. So you rewrite and rewrite again until you get it right. Until you, and the reader, will be able to visualize what you're writing about.”

Knows Writing Firsts Important Able Remember Fiction Subjects Reader First Time Smarter Non Fiction Good Writing Rewriting

Author:Michael Scott

“Writing for UrbanMoms has awarded me a multitude of amazing opportunities. I have traveled to new places; alone and with my family. I have discovered new products, new books, new trends and new restaurants, and been able to share them with my readers. I've met other wonderful writers and many incredible celebrities.”

Writing Book Able Opportunity Wonderful Share Products Reader Mets My Family Incredibles Restaurants Trends Multitudes Traveled New Books New Places New Products Amazing Opportunities

Author:Anna Quindlen

“I have an experience with as many of my readers as possible that's really genuine. I love it when they write to me, and I'm able to send them things. I love meeting them in person, and even if it's only for a moment I love having that physical, touching interaction.”

Ifs Writing Persons Moments Able Reader Meetings Genuine Touching Interaction Things I Love

Author:Chuck Palahniuk

“All of my books have an element of a man who is in love with somebody and needs them desperately, not just for procreation but for being able to fully unbosom himself. He only feels comfortable discussing things with women. Which is funny, because 80 percent of readers are women!”

Men Needs Feels Book Able Reader Elements Comfortable Percent Discussing Procreation

Author:Gary Shteyngart

“I am often talking about the ideas collected in Normal Life in contexts that are not academic, or that are full of people who are not primarily engaging as theorists or theory-readers. Being able to make ideas visual, especially critical ideas about movements that can be difficult to hear because of attachments we have to certain national narratives, or because of ways that we see ourselves, is especially useful.”

People Way Ideas Able Certain Difficult Talking Movement Theory Reader Normal Critical Narrative Visuals Attachment Academic Engaging Normal Life Theorists

Author:Dean Spade

“In a sense I am able to interrogate myself, address myself from that slight distance and enter a kind of dialogical relationship with myself. Because I'm saying, "Look, these are things that have happened to me, but how odd they are or how ordinary they are [is up to the reader to decide]."”

Looks Kind Able Happened Reader Ordinary Distance Odd Addresses

Author:Paul Auster

“Just coming to terms with the fact that I got to play April Wheeler [Revolutionary Road] and Hanna Schmitz [The Reader] in one year, let alone in my lifetime. I'm very, very aware of how rare that is as an opportunity for any one person. I can't tell you how much I've been able to take away from these experiences creatively. I really, really learned so much about acting, about myself... all of those things. It's difficult to talk about the actor's process without sounding like an arrogant asshole but they really were very challenging.”

Years Persons I Can Play Facts Able Actors Opportunity Process Difficult Term Challenges Acting Reader Lifetime Revolutionary Arrogant April

Author:Kate Winslet

“The problem a lot of writers have is that they really, really enjoy people saying, "You're brilliant." They let their self-perception be dictated by reader response. But if you're going to let other people make you feel good, you're going to end up feeling bad when they say the opposite. You've got to be a cultural stoic. Then you won't be devastated by people who respond negatively. Of course, the downside is that it sort of stops you from being able to enjoy people liking your work.”

“When we look at a good deal of serious modern fiction, and particularly Southern fiction, we find this quality about it that is generally described, in a pejorative sense, as grotesque. Of course, I have found that anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.... Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.”

Writing Looks Stills Able Courses Found Deals Fiction Quality Cases Modern Serious Reader South Realistic Southern Freak Grotesque

Author:Flannery O'Connor

“A historian who would convey the truth has got to lie. Often he must enlarge the truth by diameters, otherwise his reader would not be able to see it.”

Able Lying Reader Historian

Book:The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain

Source: The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain

“We knew that we wanted TheHunger Games to be PG-13 because she wrote the book for readers 12 and up, and we wanted them to be able to see the movie. It's a movie that is meant to be relevant to young people, and not exclude them, in any way.”

People Way Book Able Wanted Young Games Reader Meant To Be Relevant

Author:Nina Jacobson

“Make sure your main characters are likeable. They can be flawed, but your readers need to be able to root for them.”

Needs Character Able Reader Roots Flawed Main Characters Likeable

Author:Janet Evanovich

“It is hard to create a first-person narrator that can be a child and yet is able to take in enough information for the narrative to be legible to the reader.”

Firsts Children Persons Hard Enough Able Information Reader Narrative First Person Narrators

Author:Akhil Sharma

“Novelists may be able to seek advice from readers and editors, but in the end, it is up to them to get the book right.”

May Book Ends Able Advice Reader Novelists Editors

Author:Jon Weisman

“As my editor had no desire to frighten readers with the Romanian pages, he had them translated and published the whole thing in French in 1984. It was only years later, in Romania, that I was able to publish the book as I wrote it.”

Years Book Whole Able Desire Reader Pages Editors Publish Romania

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“I know "accessibility" is a term that's kind of thrown around wantonly today, especially with talking about visual media. But I think that the strength of comics [is how they] really allow you to transcend those last barriers between a reader absorbing the information of an experience, and a reader being able to project themselves into the [experience of the] people about whom they're reading.”

People Thinking Knows Kind Today Able Lasts Reading Term Talking Media Information Reader Projects Visuals Thrown Barriers Absorbing Accessibility

Author:Nate Powell

“Just enough of that to be able to give the reader a sense of skepticism that all - it seemed like all that was necessary. I don't really care. But what I do care about is what was happening within the realm of automobiles at the time that [Buckminster Fuller] invented his Dymaxion car because that is really relevant.”

Giving Enough Care Able Car Reader Happenings Realms Relevant Skepticism Automobile Buckminster Fuller I Do Care

Author:Jonathon Keats

“We need heroes of color in all different genres. It's also valuable for white readers to be able to meet people in books that are different than themselves. That can be a way of expanding their minds and experiences.”

People Way Needs Mind Book Different Able White Color Reader Hero Valuable Genre Expanding Different Genres

Author:Kekla Magoon

“I've always liked language and been a big reader. I always loved books as objects. My favorite time of year as a child was September when we'd go buy all kinds of notebooks and pens and markers for school. I think I wanted to be a writer just so I'd be able to fill up all those pages.”

Thinking Years Kind Children Book Bigs Able Wanted School Language Objects Reader Pages My Favorite All Kinds Pens September Notebook Markers

Author:Elaine Equi

“I enjoy the Web site a lot and I like being able to talk to my readers. I've always had a very close relationship with them.”

Able Literature Enjoy Relationship Reader Site Close Relationship

Author:Anne Rice

“Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.”

Should Writing Mind Wells Heart Soul Able Jobs Voice Reader Reflection Who You Are Sentences Your Soul Seducing Writing Voice

Author:Meg Rosoff