“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
“Learn to be good readers, which is perhaps a more difficult thing than you imagine. Learn to be discriminative in your reading; to read faithfully, and with your best attention, all kinds of things which you have a real interest in,--a real, not an imaginary,--and which you find to be really fit for what you are engaged in.” KindRealReadingDifficultInterestAttentionImagineReaderFitBe GoodAll KindsEngagedBeing RealImaginaryDifficult Things Book:The Works of Thomas Carlyle Source: The Works of Thomas Carlyle
“A reader can never tell if it's a real thimble or an imaginary thimble, because by the time you're reading it, they're the same. It's a thimble. It's in the book.” IfsBookRealReadingReaderImaginary Author:Margaret Atwood
“When my head is in the typewriter the last thing on my mind is some imaginary reader. I don't have an audience; I have a set of standards.” MindLastsAudienceReaderStandardsImaginaryTypewritersThings On My Mind Author:Don DeLillo
“I didn't want to give the white reader an opportunity to think of racism as imaginary - a sentiment that is already a central barrier in addressing the problem.” ThinkingWantGivingProblemOpportunityWhiteReaderRacismBarriersSentimentsImaginary Author:Vivek Shraya
“If you understand writing as primarily engaging an imaginary reader, well, you've kind of been doing that your whole life. You walk into a room and you're engaging with imaginary strangers because you don't actually know who they are. For me, it was really empowering to say: this is a branch of entertainment and communication and engagement, as opposed to jumping over some perceived literary high bar. That was the buzzkill.” IfsKnowsWritingWellsKindWholeWalksRoomsCommunicationReaderEntertainmentStrangerWhole LifeBarsBranchesEmpoweringEngagementImaginaryEngagingJumping Author:George Saunders