“Absolutists frighten me. During all the endless discussions on my blog about evolution, intelligent design, God, and the afterworld, numbering altogether thousands of comments, I have never named my beliefs, although readers have freely informed me that I am an atheist, and agnostic, or at the very least a secular humanist - which I am.” BeliefDesignEvolutionReaderIntelligentAtheistEndlessDiscussionHumanistCommentSecularAgnosticBlogsIntelligent Design Author:Roger Ebert
“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.” MadeBookRealCharacterGivenVoiceLossDesignReaderLoversSceneTablesLongingRaisedReal LifeFamiliarCollectionsSophisticatedReignElegantInnovativeCivilitySpoonsDiningNew BooksDebutUnsaidComposureRare ThingsHeathersDining Table Author:Jaimy Gordon
“You imagine a reader and try to keep the reader interested. That's storytelling. You also hope to reward the reader with a sense of a completed design, that somebody is in charge, and that while life is pointless, the book isn't pointless. The author knows where he is going. That's form.” KnowsTryingBookFormLife IsImagineDesignReaderRewardsStorytellingPointless Author:John Updike
“Character design, like story design, requires a hook to grab the reader’s attention.” CharacterStoriesAttentionDesignReaderHookCharacter Design Author:Ted Naifeh
“I hate to see great works of literature ghettoized, whereas others that conform to the rules, conventions, and procedures of the genre we call literary fiction get accorded greater esteem and privilege. I also have a problem with how books are marketed, with certain cover designs and typefaces. They're often stamped with an identity that has nothing to do with their effect on the reader.” BookProblemCertainHateLiteratureFictionGreaterEffectsDesignIdentityReaderI HatePrivilegeEsteemGenreConventionsConformGreat WorkProceduresTypefaces Author:Michael Chabon
“A newspaper can follow the compulsions, the desires of the readers. Take the English evening newspapers - they are following the readers' desires when they are interested only in the royal family gossip. But even the most objective, serious newspaper in the world designs the way in which the reader could or should think. That's unavoidable.” ThinkingWorldWayShouldDesireDesignSeriousReaderFollowingNewspapersObjectivesEveningGossipRoyalCompulsionRoyal Family Author:Umberto Eco
“Place yourself in the background; write in a way that comes naturally; work from a suitable design; write with nouns and verbs; do not overwrite; do not overstate; avoid the use of qualifiers; do not affect a breezy style; use orthodox spelling; do not explain too much; avoid fancy words; do not take shortcuts as the cost of clarity; prefer the standard to the offbeat; make sure the reader knows who is speaking; do not use dialect; revise and rewrite.” KnowsWayWritingUseToo MuchStyleDesignReaderCostStandardsBackgroundsClarityFancyOrthodoxSuitableVerbsShortcutsSpellingNounsDialectBreezyOffbeat Author:E. B. White
“A picture book is a motorcycle: small, loud, fun, and zippy. An easy reader is a chartered bus: obliged to carry a rather dull passenger roster of sanctioned curriculum, plus the baggage of an approved, limited vocabulary. The trick is to design your chartered bus to be as cool and sexy as a motorcycle.” BookFunEasyDesignReaderSexyTricksLoudDullPlusBusVocabularyObligedMotorcyclePassengersCurriculumApprovedBaggagePicture BooksRosters Author:Mo Willems
“I think the way design was practiced for most of the 20th century was very declarative. A designer came up with a solution for a project and put it in place and shipped the solution and it landed in a reader or a customer's hands as a brochure. They would see it as a poster, or as a piece of signage. And that was sort of it. That was the end of it. I think Internet technology has really upended that whole equation because in some ways a designer's work is never really done online.” ThinkingWayEndsDoneWholeHandsTechnologyPiecesCenturyDesignReaderInternetProjectsSolutionsCustomersDesignerOnline20th CenturyEquationsPostersInternet TechnologyBrochures Author:Khoi Vinh
“In college, you're kind of designing who you want to be. And I wanted to be a big reader.” WantKindBigsWantedDesignCollegeReader Author:Josh Radnor