“Why did I become a writer? Because I grew up in New York City, and there were seven newspapers in New York City, and my family was an inveterate reader of newspapers and I loved holding a paper in my hand. It was something sacred.” HandsCitiesNew YorkGrewReaderPaperGrew UpMy FamilySacredSevenNewspapersNew York City Author:Buzz Bissinger
“When I was young, I was reading anything and anything I could lay my hands on. I was a veracious-to-the-point-of-insane reader.” HandsYoungReadingReaderLaysObsessionInsane Author:Neil Gaiman
“There are people already sharing eBooks out there, .. and they do it simply because they love books. You don't buy a second copy of a book, cut the spine off, lay each page on a scanner, run that .tif through an OCR (Optical Character Reader), hand edit the resulting output for errors and then post it online if you don't love the book. it can up to 80 hours to turn a printed novel into an eBook. I figure if someone out there is willing to put in 80 hours of work promoting my book, then I'd prefer they do it in a way that gives a better return to me.” PeopleIfsWayGivingBookCharacterHandsRunningTurnsHoursNovelCuttingFiguresWillingReturnReaderPagesLaysErrorsPostsOnlineCopiesPromotingPrintedEditsSpineOutputReturn To Me Author:Cory Doctorow
“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.” ShouldFirstsHumansEnoughStoriesHandsSeemsEyeAbleHuman BeingsFictionSituationReaderDrawsCleverDisplayImaginaryCompetentGood StoryHallmarkPsych Author:H. L. Mencken
“The only real reason for self-referencing is the fun factor. It's fun for the writer, getting little peeks at what old characters might be up to. And it's fun for readers to spot a familiar face, or pick up on a made-up book title or something from an earlier story. I don't know that it does -- or even should -- contribute to the story in hand being any better than it would have been without it.” KnowsShouldLittlesDoeHas BeensMadeBookRealSelfReasonCharacterStoriesHandsMightFacesFunReaderPicksFamiliarFactorsSpotsTitlesReferencingFamiliar FacesBook Titles Author:Charles de Lint
“Looking back on the long-stretched-out body of one's work, it is interesting to mark the endless duel fought within a man between the emotional and critical sides of his nature, first one, then the other, getting the upper hand, and too seldom fusing till the result has the mellowness of full achievement. One can even tell the nature of one's readers, by their preference for the work which reveals more of this side than of that.” MenFirstsLongBodyHandsSidesInterestingResultsEmotionalReaderAchievementMarkCriticalEndlessWorking ItLooking BackPreferenceUpper Hand Author:John Galsworthy
“Writing is eternal, For therein the dead heart liveth, the clay-cold tongue is eloquent, And the quick eye of the reader is cleared by the reed of the scribe. As a fossil in the rock, or a coin in the mortar of a ruin, So the symbolled thoughts tell of a departed soul: The plastic hand hath its witness in a statue, and exactitude of vision in a picture, And so, the mind, that was among us, in its writings is embalmed.” WritingMindHeartSoulHandsEyeVisionRocksColdReaderEternalTongueRuinsWitnessPlasticCoinsFossilsClayStatuesEloquentReedsDepartedMortarScribesExactitudeDeparted Soul Author:F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Nowadays when a poet with one privately printed book can have his next three years taken care of by a Guggenheim fellowship, a Kenyon Review fellowship, and the Prix de Rome, it is hard to remember what chances the poet took in that small-town world, how precariously hand-to-mouth his existence was. And yet in one way the old days were better; [Vachel] Lindsay after a while, by luck and skill, got far more readers than any poet could get today.” WorldWayYearsBookHardHandsCareTodayRememberThreeNextChanceExistenceTakenPoetReaderSkillsMouthsTownsLuckOne WayReviewsRomeThree YearsSmall TownFellowshipPrintedOld DaysLuck And SkillPrinted Books Author:Randall Jarrell
“You have to seduce the reader, manipulate their mind and heart, listen to the music of language. I sometimes think of prose as music, in terms of its rhythms and dynamics, the way you compress and expand the attention of a reader over a sentence, the way the tempo pushes you towards an image or sensation. We want an intense experience, so that we can forget ourselves when we enter the world of the book. When you are reading, the physical object of the book should disappear from your hands.” ThinkingWorldWayWantShouldWritingMindHeartBookSometimesHandsReadingLanguageTermForgetAttentionObjectsReaderSentencesDisappearIntenseRhythmProseSensationsHeart And MindManipulateTempoDynamicsSeducing Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon
“The reader may ask himself if this is not cruelty and injustice of a kind so terrible that it beggars the imagination, and whether these poor people would not fare far better if they were entrusted to the devils in Hell than they do at the hands of the devils of the New World who masquerade as Christians.” PeopleIfsWorldKindMayHandsChristianAsksImaginationPoorHellAtheismReaderTerribleDevilInjusticePositive AtheismCrueltyNew WorldPoor PeopleBeggarMasquerade Author:Bartolome de las Casas
“I'm 52 years old, which means I'm of an age where my reading habits are more or less set. I read plenty of stuff on line but I rely on pretty traditional sources. I'm a newspaper reader, whether in hand or on my iPad.” YearsMeanHandsAgeReadingStuffLinesSourceReaderHabitNewspapersTraditionalPlentyRelyIpadsReading Habits Author:Michael Wilbon
“When I was a kid, I loved having a book in my hand. I still do. I wasn't a fast reader, but I was a steady reader. I read all of The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and Cherry Ames books.” StillsBookHandsKidsReaderSteadyTwinsCherriesNancyNancy Drew Author:Rhea Perlman
“The novel...creates a bemusing effect. The short story, on the other hand wakes the reader up. Not only that, it answers the primitive craving for art, the wit, paradox and beauty of shape, the longing to see a dramatic pattern and significance in our experience.” ArtStoriesHandsAnswersNovelEffectsReaderShapesLongingPatternsWitDramaticSignificanceParadoxShort StoryPrimitiveCraving Author:V. S. Pritchett
“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 Source: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
“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.” ThinkingMenShouldHumansCharacterHandsAbleTogetherPoetryImaginationSituationPoetFoolReaderDemandPhilosophicalPhilosopherFinishedPermitCapabilitySageBeholderMental Power Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
“The unlucky hand dealt to clear and precise writers is that people assume they are superficial and so do not go to any trouble inreading them: and the lucky hand dealt to unclear ones is that the reader does go to some trouble and then attributes the pleasure he experiences in his own zeal to them.” PeopleDoeHandsReadingPleasureClearTroubleReaderLuckyAssumingAttributesSuperficialPreciseZealUnluckyUnclear Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
“Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy - which many believe goes hand in hand with it - will be dead as well.” IfsWritingBelieveWellsHandsYoungCoursesReadingPracticeDemocracyReaderLiteracyHand In HandReading And Writing Author:Margaret Atwood
“On the one hand, I have wanted to supply documentation on myself by including material relevant to my emotions and ideas in my youth; and, on the other, not to let myself down by publishing inferior material. My poetry comes under the latter head. My only advice to the reader is to skip any verse that he sees coming.” IdeasHandsWantedEmotionAdviceYouthMaterialsReaderIncludingLatterRelevantPublishingVersesInferiorsSkipDocumentation Author:Edmund Wilson
“We all become different readers in how we respond to books, why we need them, what we take from them. We become different in the questions that arise as we read, in the answers that we find, in the degree of satisfaction or unease we feel with those answers...In the hands of a different reader, the same story can be a different story.” NeedsFeelsBookDifferentStoriesHandsAnswersReaderDegreesSatisfactionArise Author:Amy Tan
“Readers, on the other hand, have at least 7.5 books going all the time. Actually, the number of books a reader takes on is usually directly related to the number of bathrooms he has in his home and office. I am working on a survey that will show that, over a lifetime, readers are in bathrooms seven years and three months longer than nonreaders.” YearsBookShowsHomeHandsThreeNumbersMonthsReaderOfficeLifetimeSevenRelatedBathroomSeven YearsSurveysThree Months Author:Calvin Miller
“...in the theatre the stage keeps the audience aware of the fictional nature of the action. The reader poring over a magazine, on the other hand, identifies what he sees in the photographs as real.” RealHandsActionAudienceStageReaderPhotographTheatreMagazines Book:Photography & Society Source: Photography & Society
“I think precision in writing goes hand in hand with not trying to say everything. You try and say two-thirds, so the reader will involve himself or herself.” ThinkingWritingTryingTwoHandsReaderThirdsHand In HandPrecision Author:Michael Ondaatje
“You quickly find, when you are a hand-reader as I am, that nothing interests people so much as themselves.” PeopleHandsInterestReader Author:Margaret Atwood
“The narrative image has more dimensions than the painted image - literature is more complex than painting. Initially, this complexity represents a disadvantage, because the reader has to concentrate much more than when they're looking at a canvas. It gives the author, on the other hand, the opportunity to feel like a creator: they can offer their readers a world in which there's room for everyone, as every reader has their own reading and vision.” WorldGivingFeelsHandsReadingLiteratureOpportunityRoomsVisionPaintingReaderOffersComplexesCreatorNarrativeComplexityDimensionsCanvasDisadvantages Author:Dumitru Tepeneag
“My own literary interest is more about excavating the past, or sensing the past inside the present. This requires all kinds of exclusions and sleights of hand. There's an admittedly antiquarian flavor to it, even though there's enough of the present included to lull the reader.” KindEnoughHandsPastInterestMy OwnReaderAll KindsFlavorExclusionLullsSensingSleight Of Hand Author:Teju Cole
“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
“If readers like The Thorn and the Blossom, which I would call literary fantasy, I think they would like books such as Elizabeth Hand's Mortal Love, Catherynne Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, and Kelly Link's Stranger Things Happen.” IfsThinkingBookHandsHappensGirlFantasyReaderStrangerThings HappenShipsMortalsLinks Author:Theodora Goss
“People will say you should quit running if you're a slow runner. Or you should quit basketball if you can't dribble with your left hand. I don't agree with that. If you're not a very good reader at 14, nobody thinks you should stop reading.” PeopleIfsThinkingShouldHandsRunningReadingLeftReaderBasketballAgreeVery GoodQuittingRunnersLeft HandDribble Author:Timothy Shriver
“I think that actually the rhythmic nature of picture books and of young reader story books is a way to help kids fall in love with language and what you can do with it and how it sounds in your range. It sort of has a musicality but on the other hand they get the story and the ideas and the context of it. I think it's a way to get kids into it and I also think that when kids are around people who love books it rubs off on them.” PeopleThinkingWayBookIdeasHelpingStoriesHandsKidsYoungFallLanguageSoundCan DoReaderFalling In LoveRangePicture BooksMusicalityStory Book Author:Josh Prince