“It is quite too common a practice, both in readers and the more superficial class of critics, to judge a book by what it is not, a matter much easier to determine than what it is.” BookMatterCommonClassPracticeJudgingReaderEasierCriticsDetermineSuperficial Book:The North American Review Source: The North American Review
“After all, poets shouldn't be their own interpreters and shouldn't carefully dissect their poems into everyday prose; that would mean the end of being poets. Poets send their creations into the world, it is up to the reader, the aesthetician, and the critic to determine what they wanted to say with their creations.” WorldMeanEndsWantedPoetryCreationPoetReaderCriticismCriticsEverydayDetermineProseInterpreter Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The reader brings to the work personality traits, memories of past events, present needs and preoccupations, a particular mood of the moment and a particular physical condition. These and many other elements in a never-to-be-duplicated combination determine his response to the text.” NeedsMomentsPastMemoriesConditionsEventsParticularPersonalityReaderElementsResponseDetermineMoodCombinationTraitsPreoccupationPersonality TraitsPast Events Book:Transactions with literature: a fifty-year perspective : for Louise M. Rosenblatt Source: Transactions with literature: a fifty-year perspective : for Louise M. Rosenblatt
“It's not the writer who determines how good she is anyway. Writers don't determine that. It's readers who determine that.” ReaderDetermine Author:Lynne Tillman