“We re-make nature by the act of discovery, in the poem or in the theorem. And the great poem and the deep theorem are new to every reader, and yet are his own experiences, because he himself re-creates them. They are the marks of unity in variety; and in the instant when the mind seizes this for itself, in art or in science, the heart misses a beat.” MindHeartArtMissingReaderBeatsDiscoveryMarkUnityVarietyInstantTheorems Book:Science and Human Values Source: Science and Human Values
“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
“I'm far more often annoyed than delighted by previous readers' marks in used books, so I assume that my notations will be equally annoying to future readers, and avoid making them.” BookUsedReaderMarkAssumingAnnoyingDelightedAnnoyedUsed Books Author:J. Robert Lennon
“in reading ... stories, you can be many different people in many different places, doing things you would never have a chance to do in ordinary life. It's amazing that those twenty-six little marks of the alphabet can arrange themselves on the pages of a book and accomplish all that. Readers are lucky - they will never be bored or lonely.” PeopleLittlesBookDifferentStoriesReadingChanceReaderLuckySixPagesOrdinaryLonelyMarkTwentiesAccomplishBoredDifferent PeoplesBook ReadingDifferent PlaceAlphabetOrdinary LifeReading Stories Author:Natalie Babbitt
“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.” WritingLittlesBookStoriesReadingBlackReaderMarkWoodsWriters And WritingWriting By WritersPulpStory WritingWriting StoriesCreativity And WritingStory WritersUnread Books Book:Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places Source: Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places
“... when one reflects on the books one never has written, and never may, though their schedules lie in the beautiful chirography which marks the inception of an unexpressed thought upon the pages of one's notebook, one is aware, of any given idea, that the chances are against its ever being offered to one's dearest readers.” MayBookIdeasBeautifulLyingGivenChanceWrittenReaderPagesMarkSchedulesChances AreNotebookInception Author:Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward
“Books are frozen voices, in the same way that musical scores are frozen music. The score is a way of transmitting the music to someone who can play it, releasing it into the air where it can once more be heard. And the black alphabet marks on the page represent words that were once spoken, if only in the writer's head. They lie there inert until a reader comes along and transforms the letters into living sounds. The reader is the musician of the book: each reader may read the same text, just as each violinist plays the same piece, but each interpretation is different.” IfsWayMayBookDifferentPlayLyingSoundBlackVoicePiecesHeardAirReaderMusicianPagesLettersMarkMusicalScoreInterpretationFrozenAlphabetViolinist Author:Margaret Atwood
“[Mark] Twain is pointing at you. You, the reader of the book one hundred and thirty years ago and today. That is what has made it a great American novel and the most widely read book in American Literature around the world today.” WorldYearsMadeBookTodayLiteratureNovelReaderHundredYears AgoMarkMade ItAround The WorldThirtyPointingWorld TodayThirty YearsGreat AmericanAmerican Literature Author:Hal Holbrook
“When I use a name or place, I want to leave the reader open to the waterfall of determinacy that it may provoke. And I don't know, but I must mention the name Borges. I try to mention it in every one of my works. It's a mark, a stamp, a sort of homage to Argentinidad. But it's an homage that works through pat phrases, those stock images that populate his work: the night, labyrinths, libraries. That is, I don't want simply to pay homage to Borges, but rather the contrary: to recall his commonplaces.” KnowsWantTryingMayUseNightNamesPayReaderMarkLibraryContraryPhrasesWorking ItRecallsProvokingStampsCommonplaceLabyrinthHomageWaterfallsBorges Author:Sergio Chejfec