Home / Topics / Reader Quotes

Reader Quotes

Browse 3935 quotes about Reader.

Reader Quotes

“I would be wonderful with a 100-year moratorium on literature talk, if you shut down all literature departments, close the book reviews, ban the critics. The readers should be alone with the books, and if anyone dared to say anything about them, they would be shot or imprisoned right on the spot. Yes, shot. A 100-year moratorium on insufferable literary talk. You should let people fight with the books on their own and rediscover what they are and what they are not. Anything other than this talk.”

People Ifs Should Years Book Would Be Fighting Literature Wonderful Reader Shots Critics Spots Department Reviews Say Anything Bans Insufferable Book Review

Author:Philip Roth

“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.”

“I love my job, and I love books. I read anything, including cereal boxes. I care deeply about what people think of my books, and I memorize my reviews. I love to hear from my readers.”

People Thinking Book Care Jobs Reader Including Boxes Reviews I Care Cereal

Author:Lisa Scottoline

“Books are just dead words on paper and it is the readers who bring the stories alive. Previously, writers wrote a book and sent it out into the world. A couple of months after publication letters from readers might arrive. And, leaving aside the professional reviews, it is really the reader's opinions that the writer needs. They vote for a book - and a writer - with their hard earned cash every time they go into a bookstore (or online - that's my age showing!) and buy a book.”

World Needs Book Hard Stories Might Age Opinion Alive Months Reader Couple Paper Letters Vote Leaving Online Reviews Cash Publication Bookstores Words On Paper

Author:Michael Scott

“I love getting fan mail. Often, as a writer, you never know what your readers think of a book... you get critical reviews and sales figures, but none of that is the same as knowing you've made a person stay up all night reading, or helped them have a good cry, or really touched their life.”

Thinking Knows Persons Made Book Night Reading Knowing Fans Cry Figures Reader Critical Touched Reviews Mail All Night Up All Night Fan Mail

Author:Jodi Picoult

“Every writer prefers good reviews over bad ones, and every writer wants to have lots of readers. But if it doesn't happen, that's fine too. Perhaps I won't throw a party then; I'll simply go home and keep writing.”

Ifs Want Writing Home Happens Party Fine Reader Reviews

Author:J. K. Rowling

“There is a misconception of tragedy with which I have been struck in review after review, and in many conversations with writers and readers alike. It is the idea that tragedy is of necessity allied to pessimism.”

Has Beens Ideas Reader Conversation Tragedy Pessimism Reviews Misconception

Book:The Collected Essays of Arthur Miller

Source: The Collected Essays of Arthur Miller

“Writing blog posts is totally freeing in a whole new way for me. I'm not writing it for any editor, and I'm not being paid, so I can say whatever I want. I don't have to justify the cost of a book to readers; they get it for free, so expectations are naturally low. (And no one-star reviews!)”

Way Want Writing I Can Book Whole Stars Reader Cost Lows Expectations Paid Posts Justify Editors Reviews New Ways Blogs

Author:Kate Christensen

“I don't revise a lot when writing short stories. As far as the novel, I definitely thought more about plot. Honestly, I'm still pretty confused about what "plot" means. I've been reading some of my Goodreads reviews and one reader noted that the The Last Days of California "reads like a short story stretched to the breaking point, padded and brought into novel range..." I don't know what people want, really.”

“I love doing readings. I could really give a crap about reviews. It's kind of about the readers.”

Giving Kind Reading Reader Reviews Crap

Author:Jami Attenberg

“As a publisher what you are trying to build is a long life for a book, to help it find its readers in many different ways, whether or not it made this list or got that review, etc. I'm sure some of that thinking has been useful to me as a writer as well.”

Thinking Way Trying Wells Long Has Beens Made Book Different Helping Reader Lists Different Ways Etc Reviews Publishers Long Life

Author:Danielle Dutton

“One of the functions of literary criticism, or reviewing, generally - and I, most of my reviews actually are not about literature - but one of the functions of that is basically the sort of Consumer Reports function of letting readers know whether this is something they want to read.”

Knows Want Literature Reader Criticism Function Consumers Reports Reviews Literary Criticism

Author:Louis Menand

“Stephen King has the exact ability that Charles Dickens had. To get to his readers in spite of or despite anything the reviews say.”

Ability Reader Kings Despite Spite Reviews Dickens

Author:Frederick Busch

“You hope that people read your book and say "Yes, this is the way it is or could be." But then you have no way of knowing until the reader reads the book. Actually, the critical response doesn't worry me. I've had very few reviews that have upset me.”

People Way Book Worry Knowing Reader Response Critical Upset Reviews

Author:Robert Cormier

“If a book I've committed myself to review turns out to be 'disappointing' I make an effort to present it objectively to the reader, including a good number of excerpts from the text, so that the reader might form his or her own opinion independent of my own.”

Ifs Book Might Form Turns My Own Numbers Effort Opinion Reader Independent Including Committed Reviews Disappointing

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“I think the 'New York Times' reviews overall tend to overlook popular fiction, whether you're a man, woman, white, black, purple or pink. I think there are a lot of readers who would like to see reviews that belong in the range of commercial fiction rather than making the blanket assumption that all commercial fiction is unworthy.”

Thinking Men Black White Fiction New York Reader Range Reviews Purple Men Women New York Times

Author:Jodi Picoult