“Where names of people or places would mean little to a contemporary reader, I figured "translation errors" could create interesting new meanings.” PeopleMeanLittlesNamesInterestingReaderErrorsContemporaryTranslations Author:Hal Duncan
“The idea of a poem as a message in a bottle means that it's sent out towards some future reader and the reader who opens that bottle becomes the addressee of the literary text.” MeanIdeasReaderMessagesBottlesMessage In A Bottle Author:Edward Hirsch
“I come from a nation where fantastic fiction has a very low status, unless it fits into some very specific categories or is written by already established authors. I don't by any means try to hide what I write, but the way people think in categories here is pretty extreme: it blots out discussing the actual work on its own terms. That's made me loath to talk about my own work in terms of genre, because once you get a label, it sticks and poof go a slew of potential readers and reviewers because eww, fantasy cooties.” PeopleThinkingWayWritingTryingMeanMadeNationsTermMy OwnFictionFantasyWrittenReaderFitLowsSticksExtremesFantasticLabelsGenreCategoriesDiscussingReviewersCooties Author:Karin Tidbeck
“I love the necessary ambiguity of short stories - there simply isn't time to render every detail, so much of the story that orbits the literal prose must happen in the reader's imagination. Who knows, maybe the dwindling attention spans means a lucrative future for short story writers.” KnowsMeanStoriesHappensImaginationAttentionReaderDetailsProseShort StoryAmbiguityLiteralOrbitAttention SpanStory Writers Author:Matthew Healy
“I don't know that I had a sense that there was such a thing as "the poetry world" in the 1960s and early 70s. Maybe poets did, but for me as an onlooker and reader of poetry, poetry felt like it was part of a larger literary world. I mean, even the phrase "the poetry world" reflects a sort of balkanization of American literary and artistic life that has to some extent happened since then.” KnowsWorldMeanFeltHappenedPoetReaderArtisticPhrases1960sArtistic Life Author:Robert Hass
“I trust, that your readers will not construe my words to mean, that I would not have gone to a 3 o'clock in the morning session, for the sake of defeating the Nebraska bill.” MeanMorningGoneReaderBillsSakeClockSessionNebraska Book:Controversy Between New York Tribune and Gerrit Smith Source: Controversy Between New York Tribune and Gerrit Smith
“The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.” WritingMeanBookLiteratureWishReaderDifficulty Book:Memories, Portraits, Essays and Records (Annotated Edition) Source: Memories, Portraits, Essays and Records (Annotated Edition)