Quotessence
Home / Topics / Reader Quotes

Reader Quotes

Browse 3935 quotes about Reader.

Related topics

BookWritingIfsThinkingReadingStoriesPeopleWantWayKnowsWorldCharacterNovelShouldFeelsTryingGivingFirstsMindKindFictionWellsPagesLiteratureMayNeedsWrittenBelieveMeanImportantMightTwoLittlesEndsI CanRealPoetYearsIdeasMadeMenHas BeensHeartLongDoeLooksFactsPersonsCertainDifferentLanguageChildrenArtMatterSeemsUseHumansDoneEnoughFeelingsImaginationInterestWould BeSometimesHardStillsWantedAbleFormHappensLinesMomentsHandsYoungBigsCareHelpingSaidAsksAudiencePleasureSubjectsTurnsSelfCoursesEyeInterestingJobsAgeEnjoyWholeReasonAttentionLibraryKidsOrderMovingThreeTogetherGivenmore

Reader Quotes

“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
Create image

“It is only the basest writer who cannot speak of the sea without talking of "raging waves," "remorseless floods," "ravenous billows," etc.; and it is one of the signs of the highest power in a writer to check all such habits of thought, and to keep his eyes fixed firmly on the pure fact , out of which if any feeling comes to him or his reader, he knows it must be a true one.”

IfsKnowsFactsFeelingsEyeSpeakTalkingSeaReaderHabitPureHighestWaveRageChecksFixedHis EyesEtcFloodTrue OnesRemorseless
Book:The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings
Create image

“It is precisely the sort of thing I am always trying to do in my writing -- to present my unhappy reader with a wide-ranged chaos -- of actions and reactions, thoughts, memories and feelings -- in the vain hope that at the end he will see that the whole thing represents only one moment, one feeling, one person. A raging, trumpeting jungle of associations, and then I announce at the end of it, with a gesture of despair, "This is I!”

WritingTryingPersonsEndsWholeMomentsFeelingsActionMemoriesReaderDespairChaosWideRageUnhappyReactionsVainAssociationGesturesJungleAlways TryingAction And Reaction
Book:Blue Voyage: A Novel
Create image

“The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from every-day life. Relatively few are free enough from the spell of the daily routine to respond to rappings from outside, and tales of ordinary feelings and events, or of common sentimental distortions of such feelings and events, will always take first place in the taste of the majority; rightly, perhaps, since of course these ordinary matters make up the greater part of human experience.”

FirstsHumansMatterEnoughFeelingsCertainCoursesImaginationCommonGreaterEventsReaderTasteDemandDegreesOrdinaryCapacityMajorityRapTalesAppealsRoutineSpellsSentimentalHuman ExperienceDetachmentDistortionDay LifeDaily RoutinesMacabre
Book:H.P. Lovecraft: The Ultimate Collection (160 Works Including Early Writings, Fiction, Collaborations, Poetry, Essays & Bonus Audiobook Links)
Create image

“The most difficult part of writing a book is not devising a plot which will captivate the reader. It's not developing characters the reader will have strong feelings for or against. It is not finding a setting which will take the reader to a place he or she as never been. It is not the research, whether in fiction or non-fiction. The most difficult task facing a writer is to find the voice in which to tell the story.”

WritingBookCharacterStoriesFeelingsStrongDifficultVoiceFictionReaderFindingsResearchTasksSettingSettingsDevelopingPlotNon FictionWriting A BookStrong FeelingDifficult TasksDevising
Author:Randy Pausch
Create image

“There's an old adage in writing: 'Don't tell, but show.' Writing is not psychology. We do not talk 'about' feelings. Instead the writer feels and through her words awakens those feelings in the reader. The writer takes the reader's hand and guides him through the valley of sorrow and joy without ever having to mention those words.”

FeelsWritingShowsFeelingsHandsJoyPsychologyReaderSorrowGuidesValleysAdages
Book:Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
Create image

“My feeling is that it's one of the very few things that comics can do that you really can't do in any other medium. I feel like the reader accepts all of these styles, and after a certain point you can flip the pages and see a character rendered very differently than you saw on an earlier page, and it's not jarring. It suggests things that you can't suggest just in the writing or in the plotting.”

FeelsWritingCharacterFeelingsCertainCan DoAcceptingSawsStyleReaderPagesMediumsFlip
Author:Daniel Clowes
Create image

“The problem of the novelist who wishes to write about a man's encounter with God is how he shall make the experience--which is both natural and supernatural--understandable, and credible, to his reader. In any age this would be a problem, but in our own, it is a well- nigh insurmountable one. Today's audience is one in which religious feeling has become, if not atrophied, at least vaporous and sentimental.”

IfsMenWritingWellsFeelingsProblemWould BeAgeTodayWishNaturalReligiousAudienceReaderNovelistsEncountersSentimentalSentimentalityCredibleInsurmountable
Author:Flannery O'Connor
Create image

“I'm an optimist and my heroines seem to be that way, too. It's too much work to be cynical and distrusting. That doesn't mean I create perfect stories and perfect people, however. What this means is that my stories are resolved in a manner that leaves the reader with a feeling of hope and happy expectation . . . and wanting to reach for another one of my books.”

PeopleWayMeanBookStoriesFeelingsSeemsPerfectToo MuchReaderExpectationsCynicalOptimistHeroinesToo Much Work
Author:Debbie Macomber
Create image

“What a person loves at 20 may seem stupid at 35. That doesn't mean the book was stupid, it means that the time when it spoke to the reader is past. So . . . I'm cautious about rereading favorite books. I hate to spoil the good feelings they created. Keeping the good feelings is more important than rereading the book. Moving on is a good thing.”

MayMeanPersonsImportantBookFeelingsSeemsPastMovingHateStupidReaderI HateGood ThingsSpokesSpoilCautiousGood FeelingFavorite BookRereadingPersons Love
Author:Carl Deuker
Create image

“One thing I like about writing is that it provides such a wonderful opportunity for confidential chats with readers. In the privacy of writing, and reading, we can discuss topics that are a little touchy, a bit embarrassing, and feel less alone in the process. Feeling consumed by memories from high school. Feeling wimpy. Feeling time-obsessed. Yearning for our fathers. Wishing we were taller, or shorter, or less average. To name just a few.”

FeelsWritingLittlesFeelingsSchoolReadingFatherOpportunityNamesWishBitsProcessMemoriesWonderfulOne ThingReaderHigh SchoolAverageObsessedPrivacyYearningTopicsEmbarrassingConsumedOur FatherWriting And ReadingConfidentialTouchy
Author:Ralph Keyes
Create image

“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.”

PeopleIfsFeelsEndsSelfFeelingsProblemAbleCoursesEnjoyLike YouReaderPerceptionOppositesResponseBrilliantFeel GoodDevastatedStoicMake You Feel GoodSelf PerceptionFeeling Bad
Author:Chuck Klosterman
Create image

“My objective always is to stay as close as possible and shoot the pictures as if through the eyes of the infantryman, the Marine, or the pilot. I wanted to give the reader something of the visual perspective and feeling of the guy under fire, his apprehensions and sufferings, his tensions and releases, his behavior in the presence of threatening death.”

IfsGivingFeelingsEyeWantedGuySufferingFirePerspectiveReaderBehaviorObjectivesReleaseTensionVisualsPilotsThreateningMarineApprehensionThrough The EyesInfantryman
Author:David Douglas Duncan
Create image

“If Fobbit leaves a reader feeling stranded in some bland in-between territory, then I haven't done my job. But having said all that, I didn't consciously write the book with a particular moral intent. I took what I experienced and processed it through the sausage factory of fiction. It's up to readers to interpret what's on the page - as is the case with any novel.”

IfsWritingSaidBookDoneFeelingsJobsFictionMoralCasesNovelHavensParticularReaderPagesTerritoryFactoriesSausageBlandStranded
Author:Dave Abrams
Create image

“There is all this stuff about how sensitive poets are and how in touch with feelings, etc. they are, but really all we care about is language. At least in the initial stages of the process of writing the poem, though later other things start to come in, and a really good poem usually needs something more than just an interest in the material of language to mean anything to a reader.”

NeedsWritingMeanFeelingsCareLanguageStuffProcessInterestStagePoetMaterialsReaderSensitiveEtcInitials
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“Novels are routinely denigrated when characters are not found to be likable. Is Raskolnikov likable? Is King Lear? The plethora of such naive readers testifies to a failure of imagination - the capacity to see into unfamiliar lives, motives, feelings - and this failure must, at least in part, be the failure of the teaching of literature in the schools.”

CharacterFeelingsSchoolFoundLiteratureImaginationNovelTeachingReaderKingsCapacityMotiveNaiveUnfamiliarLearRaskolnikov
Author:Cynthia Ozick
Create image

“[Michael] Chabon is arguing in favor of what is at the same time an old-fashioned and very forward-thinking opening up - of taking off the class associations with those labels, because we grew up, or I certainly grew up, feeling that, "Oh, there's literary fiction, and beneath that, there's these other things." He's actually saying that they're all of equal merit, and in many cases, that work in the genres, or work that draws from the genres is more entertaining for readers, since it is our job to entertain people.”

PeopleThinkingFeelingsJobsFictionClassCasesGrewReaderEqualGrew UpDrawsArguingFavorsOpeningLabelsGenreMeritAssociationEntertainingOld FashionedOpening UpGenre IsForward Thinking
Author:Emily Barton
Create image

“The thing with Superman is that he's completely emotionally open to the reader. Meaning what he tells you is what he's feeling; there's a transparency there. And what he tells other characters is usually as transparent as can be. What he says he believes in. So there's an honesty that is both really inspiring writing the character. One thing I love about Clark Kent is that there is a badassery that you don't see a lot. Even as Superman, he's always kind of restraining himself. When you challenge him, I think there's nobody that has a stronger spine than Superman.”

ThinkingWritingBelieveKindCharacterFeelingsChallengesOne ThingHonestyReaderStrongerTransparentTransparencySpineThings I LoveRestrainingKentInspiring WritingReally Inspiring
Author:Scott Snyder
Create image

“There is that lovely feeling of one reader telling another, 'You must read this.' I've always wanted to write a book like that, with the sense that you are contributing to the discourse in middle America, a discourse that begins at a book club in a living room, but then spreads. That is meaningful to me.”

WritingBookFeelingsWantedAmericaRoomsMiddleReaderClubsSpreadMeaningfulLovelyDiscourseLiving RoomContributingBook ClubMiddle America
Author:Abraham Verghese
Create image