“I've mis-signed many a book Rollins or Clemens. My readers quickly become aware. Booksellers will often promote me under both names, and I do plug both at signings. Generally, the fantasy reader has no problem going into the suspense genre. It's harder for the typical suspense reader to go the other direction.” BookProblemNamesFantasyReaderHarderSuspenseGenreTypicalNo ProblemSigningPlugsBooksellers Author:James Rollins
“Teaching Plato in Palestine shows how philosophical thinking can illuminate important topics-in particular, the problem of finding ways to engage people with opposed ideologies in fruitful debate. The lively narratives, based on the author's experiences of working with various groups interested in using philosophical tools to clarify their thought and action, will engage a wide range of readers.” PeopleThinkingWayImportantShowsProblemActionGroupsTeachingParticularReaderFindingsToolsPhilosophicalVariousWideDebateIdeologyNarrativeRangeTopicsPlatoPalestineLivelyThoughts And ActionsPhilosophical Thinking Author:Gary Gutting
“Labels don't mean much to me one way or another -- except when they close the minds of potential readers. I'd much rather we do away with genres and simply file everything under fiction. I know it can work -- one of my favourite record stores (Waterloo Music in Austin) simply files everything alphabetically and no one seems to have much problem finding what they're looking for.” KnowsWayMindMeanProblemSeemsFictionRecordsReaderFindingsStoresOne WayLabelsGenreFavouriteFilesAustinRecord StoresWaterloo Author:Charles de Lint
“My books are based on the "what if" principle. "What if you became invisible?" or "What if you did change into your mother for one day?" I then take it from there. Each book takes several months in the long process of writing, rewriting, writing, rewriting, and each has its own set of problems. The one thing I dislike about the writing process is the sometimes-loneliness of it all. Readers only get to see the glamour part of a bound book, not some of the agonizing moments one has while constructing it.” IfsWritingLongBookSometimesMomentsProblemMotherProcessPrinciplesOne ThingLonelinessMonthsReaderOne DayBoundsInvisibleWhat IfDislikeWriting ProcessGlamourRewritingAgonizing Author:Mary Rodgers
“In the end all books are written for your friends. The problem after writing One Hundred Years of Solitude was that now I no longer know whom of the millions of readers I am writing for; this upsets and inhibits me. It's like a million eyes are looking at you and you don't really know what they think.” ThinkingKnowsWritingYearsBookEndsProblemEyeMillionsWrittenReaderSolitudeHundredUpsetOne Hundred Years Of Solitude Author:Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“Most people are middle class. Most people do wish their lives were better than they are. And I think by making my main characters ordinary, average guys, it helps readers identify with their problems. It also helps ground the supernatural events that follow in a recognizable reality and perhaps gives some of my wilder scenarios a little verisimilitude.” PeopleThinkingGivingLittlesCharacterHelpingProblemRealityGuyWishClassMiddleEventsReaderOrdinaryAverageMiddle ClassScenariosMain CharactersWilder Author:Bentley Little
“I thought it would be great to do superheroes that have the same kind of life problems that any reader - that anybody could have.” KindProblemWould BeReaderSuperhero Author:Stan Lee
“The problem for cookery-bookery writers like me is to understand the extent of our readers' experience. I hope have solved that riddle in my books by simply telling everything. The experienced cook will know to skip through the verbiage, but the explanations will be there for those who still need them.” KnowsNeedsStillsBookProblemReaderCookingLike MeCooksExplanationRiddleSkipCookery Author:Julia Child
“The brand is lying about something, or at least misrepresenting it. When I read a bottle of shampoo or moisturizer or other beauty product, I always perceive a dark subtext. The words haunt me. It comes across as humorous to the reader/audience, but in fact the words really do make me a little bit queasy. Nothing is as easy or natural as consumer brands want us to think - no problem is as resolvable. Your hair will fall out, eventually. Yet we do have these brands, and we line our shelves with them. There's an inherent irony.” ThinkingWantLittlesFactsProblemLyingFallEasyBitsNaturalLinesDarkAudienceProductsHairReaderLittle BitHumorousBrandsConsumersPerceiveIronyBottlesInherentShelvesNo ProblemWant UShampooSubtextBeauty Products Author:Aaron Belz
“We chose to do this work mathematically, which has the advantage of precision but is not always appreciated by readers. It is perhaps for this reason that anthropologists have not shown much interest in these models, unlike economists, for example, for whom the use of mathematics poses no problem. However, one could reach the same conclusions by using just a bit of common sense.” ReasonUseProblemBitsInterestCommonExampleReaderModelsAdvantageMathematicsCommon SenseConclusionEconomistNo ProblemAppreciatedPrecisionAnthropologists Author:Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
“The worst kind of novel is one that blames other people for the racial problem in order to make the reader feel good about himself. As if it's only rich white people or Republicans or conservatives who have this disease.” PeopleIfsFeelsKindProblemOrderWhiteNovelRichWorstReaderRepublicanDiseaseBlameFeel Good Author:George Pelecanos
“Each kind of story has its own problems in writing, but my main concern really is to keep the reader on his toes, or to keep the strip unpredictable. I try to achieve some sort of balance between the two that keeps the reader wondering what's going to happen next and be surprised.” WritingTryingKindTwoStoriesProblemHappensNextWonderAchieveReaderBalanceConcernToesUnpredictable Author:Bill Watterson
“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
“Philosophy treats of physics where a more careful knowledge is required because the problems which come under this head are numerous... So the reader of Ctesibius or Archimedes and the other writers of treatises of the same class will not be able to appreciate them unless he has been trained in these subjects by the philosophers.” Has BeensPhilosophyProblemAbleClassSubjectsReaderAppreciateTreatsPhilosopherCarefulPhysics Author:Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
“It is not my intention to explain Turkey, its culture and its problems. My literature has a universal concern: I want to bring people and their emotions closer to my readers, not explain Turkish politics.” PeopleWantProblemCultureLiteratureEmotionReaderConcernUniversalIntentionTurkeysTurkish Author:Orhan Pamuk
“I hate to see great works of literature ghettoized, whereas others that conform to the rules, conventions, and procedures of the genre we call literary fiction get accorded greater esteem and privilege. I also have a problem with how books are marketed, with certain cover designs and typefaces. They're often stamped with an identity that has nothing to do with their effect on the reader.” BookProblemCertainHateLiteratureFictionGreaterEffectsDesignIdentityReaderI HatePrivilegeEsteemGenreConventionsConformGreat WorkProceduresTypefaces Author:Michael Chabon
“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
“I imagine you will always be pinched for money, for time, for a place to work. But I think you will do it. And believe me, it is not a new problem. You are in good company...Your touch is the uncommon touch; you will speak only to the thoughtful reader. And more times than once you will ask yourself whether such readers really exist at all and why you should go on projecting your words into silence like an old crazy actor playing the part of himself to an empty theater.” ThinkingShouldBelieveProblemActorsAsksSpeakSilenceCompanyImagineCrazyGoes OnReaderEmptyTheaterThoughtfulMore TimeBelieve In MeUncommonGood Company Author:Wallace Stegner
“The problem with kitsch is that it is all too profound, manipulating deep libidinal and ideological forces, while true art knows how to remain at the surface, how to subtract it's subject from it's deepest context of historical reality. The same goes for contemporary art, where we often encounter brutal attempts to return to the Real, to remind the spectator or reader that he is perceiving a fiction, to awaken him from a sweet dream.” KnowsArtRealProblemDreamRealityForceFictionKnow HowSubjectsSweetReturnReaderHistoricalProfoundSurfaceContemporaryEncountersBrutalSpectatorsIdeologicalKitschContemporary ArtSweet Dreams Author:Slavoj Žižek
“Every novel deals with social problems. It can't help it because the protagonist must come in conflict with his group. So the author has to offer an analysis of how the group and the protagonist fit. Otherwise, the reader will just say, "This makes no sense," and will put it away.” HelpingProblemSocialDealsNovelGroupsReaderFitOffersConflictAnalysisProtagonistsSocial Problems Author:Jane Smiley
“Another trouble with poetry - and I'm gonna stop the list at two - is the presence of presumptuousness in poetry, the sense you get in a poem that the poet takes for granted an interest on the reader's part in the poet's autobiographical life, in the poet's memories, problems, difficulties and even minor perceptions.” TwoProblemInterestMemoriesTroublePoetReaderPerceptionDifficultyListsGrantedMinors Author:Billy Collins
“Maybe there's a sense that technology isn't necessarily the answer to a lot of our problems. Fantasy offers readers a less radically alienated world - a world where desires and feelings that normally are trapped inside your mind are made real in the form of magic.” WorldMindMadeRealFeelingsProblemFormDesireAnswersTechnologyFantasyMagicReaderOffersTrapped Author:Lev Grossman
“I would like to undermine the stereotype of "strict philosophy." J.L. Austin remarked that, when philosophy is done well, it's all over by the bottom of the first page. I take him to have meant that the real work comes in setting up the problem with which you are dealing, and thus getting your reader to take particular things for granted.” FirstsWellsRealDonePhilosophyProblemParticularReaderPagesBottomSettingSettingsGrantedStrictStereotypeAustinReal Work Author:Philip Kitcher
“You know, my problem with most screenwriting is it is a blueprint. It's like they're afraid to write the damn thing. And I'm a writer. That's what I do. I want it to be written. I want it to work on the page first and foremost. So when I'm writing the script, I'm not thinking about the viewer watching the movie. I'm thinking about the reader reading the script.” ThinkingKnowsWantWritingFirstsProblemReadingWrittenReaderPagesScriptsDamnViewersBlueprintsScreenwritingDamn Things Author:Quentin Tarantino
“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
“A trouble with poetry is the presence of presumptuousness in poetry, the sense you get in a poem that the poet takes for granted an interest on the reader's part in the poet's autobiographical life, in the poet's memories, problems, difficulties and even minor perceptions. I try to presume that no one is interested in me. And I think experience bears that out. No one's interested in the experiences of a stranger - let's put it that way. And then you have difficulty combined with presumptuousness, which is the most dire trouble with poetry.” ThinkingWayTryingProblemInterestMemoriesTroublePoetBearsReaderPerceptionDifficultyStrangerGrantedPoetry IsMinors Author:Billy Collins
“There are terrific models for success with reluctant readers, but many school systems and state governments need to set aside their 'not invented here' and 'we have more important problems than education' attitudes.” NeedsImportantStatesProblemGovernmentSchoolAttitudeReaderModelsTerrificReluctantState GovernmentSchool System Author:James Patterson