“That's why editors and publishers will never be obsolete: a reader wants someone with taste and authority to point them in the direction of the good stuff, and to keep the awful stuff away from their door.” WantStuffDoorsReaderTasteAuthorityAwfulEditorsPublishersObsolete Author:Walter Jon Williams
“As readers, we are seldom interested in the fine sentiments of a lesson learnt; we seldom care about the good manners of morals. Repentance puts an end to conversation; forgiveness becomes the stuff of moralistic tracts. Revenge - bloodthirsty, justice-hungry revenge - is the very essence of romance, lying at the heart of much of the best fiction.” HeartEndsCareRomanceLyingStuffJusticeFictionMoralFineReaderLessonsConversationEssenceRevengeHungryMannersGood ManRepentanceSentimentsGood Manners Author:Alberto Manguel
“I'm a reader, so when I go to bookstores I need (stuff) that's going to help me. There a big emptiness there and I want to help fill that through song.” WantNeedsHelpingBigsSongStuffReaderEmptinessHelp MeBookstores Author:Nas
“On a daily basis there are some huge ones that are, sure, from time to time, but it is helping the reader sort through all this sort of gray stuff out there.” HelpingLiteratureStuffHugeReaderBasesGray Author:Jim Lehrer
“I'm 52 years old, which means I'm of an age where my reading habits are more or less set. I read plenty of stuff on line but I rely on pretty traditional sources. I'm a newspaper reader, whether in hand or on my iPad.” YearsMeanHandsAgeReadingStuffLinesSourceReaderHabitNewspapersTraditionalPlentyRelyIpadsReading Habits Author:Michael Wilbon
“I had always been an enthusiastic reader of stuff about ancient Greece. I would read Herodotus and Thucydides just for fun.” FunStuffReaderAncientGreeceEnthusiasticAncient GreeceJust For Fun Author:Steven Pressfield
“On a more technical level, a story takes a lot of words. And to generate words and phrases and images and so on, that will compel the reader to continue reading - that stand a chance of really grabbing a reader - the writer has to work out of a place of, let's say, familiarity and affection. The matrix of the story has to be made out of stuff the writer really knows about and likes. The writer can't be stretching and (purely) inventing all the time. Well, I can't, anyway.” KnowsWellsMadeI CanStoriesReadingStuffChanceLevelsReaderAffectionWork OutLikesPhrasesFamiliarityStretchingInventingGrabbing Author:George Saunders
“And at some point I would like to talk my publisher into doing an anthology of my poetry alongside some teen readers poetry. It would be fun, and really wonderful to get their stuff out there.” Would BeFunStuffWonderfulReaderPublishersAnthology Author:Ellen Hopkins
“When interviewers ask me who I'm sleeping with or if I don't like such-and-such or what is my sexuality, that's not beneficial to the world. They need to ask me about stuff that may help readers, like how my father abused my mother for many years. A lot of kids go through that and need to know what they should do.” IfsKnowsWorldNeedsShouldYearsMayHelpingKidsMotherAsksFatherStuffSleepReaderSexualityAsk MeBeneficialInterviewers Author:Missy Elliot
“There is all this stuff about how sensitive poets are and how in touch with feelings, etc. they are, but really all we care about is language. At least in the initial stages of the process of writing the poem, though later other things start to come in, and a really good poem usually needs something more than just an interest in the material of language to mean anything to a reader.” NeedsWritingMeanFeelingsCareLanguageStuffProcessInterestStagePoetMaterialsReaderSensitiveEtcInitials Author:Matthew Zapruder
“Not to any really influential effect, but certainly there have been comments that have surprised me. It's surprising sometimes to get particular perspectives on your work, and it's enlightening sometimes to know that non-writers and readers out there have certain assumptions about everything that I both want to keep in mind and want to forget about why I write, and about the connection between me as a private person and the stuff that I think about on the page.” ThinkingKnowsWantWritingMindPersonsHas BeensSometimesCertainStuffForgetEffectsParticularPerspectiveReaderPagesConnectionsAssumptionCommentSurprisingEnlighteningInfluential Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“I don't think that stuff is gone - I just don't want to dwell on it. There's a difference. As I said, I think we all have tendencies as writers, and I think we all have experience that we bring as readers to each project.” ThinkingWantSaidStuffDifferencesGoneReaderProjectsTendencies Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“I tend to think that the onus is on the writer to engage the reader, that the reader should not be expected to need the writer, that the writer has to prove it. All that stuff might add up to a kind of fun in the work. I like things that are about interesting subjects, which sounds self-evident.” ThinkingNeedsShouldKindSelfMightFunStuffSoundInterestingSubjectsReaderProveAddExpectedEvidentProve It Author:Lorin Stein
“Fanzines are very important for sharing stuff that you're in to, with the readers and listeners. We met through the love of discovering music and it makes sense, to want to share that music with other people.” PeopleWantImportantStuffShareReaderMetsMake SenseDiscoveringListeners Author:Faris Badwan
“When I'm teaching, I'm not really doing my job if the student who's always comfortable doing wacko stuff all over the page keeps getting gold stars from me for doing wacko stuff all over the page. A riskier assignment for that student, who might be used to hiding behind a lot of formal armor, would be to try to do something straightforward, traditionally, in which they are much more directly laid bare for the reader.” IfsTryingMightWould BeJobsUsedStarsStuffBehindsTeachingStudentsReaderComfortablePagesGoldHidingFormalStraightforwardArmorAssignments Author:John D'Agata
“First, there are some of my readers who only read Hap and Leonard, not the other stuff, and some who don't read Hap and Leonard, but a large percentage are crossover readers. And yes, I did refuse to go to Vietnam and it looked like prison was in my future, but they sent me to the psychiatrist and he gave me a 1-Y, which is unfit for military service essentially.” FirstsStuffMilitaryReaderPrisonRefuseVietnamPercentagesPsychiatristMy FutureMilitary ServiceCrossover Author:Joe R. Lansdale
“That's one of the reasons I take a lot of consolation in fiction. You have years to work on it. I think that allows you to reach for the best part of your reader instead of a lot of the internet stuff, in which you're kind of reaching for the worst or the most shallow part of your reader.” ThinkingYearsKindReasonStuffFictionWorstReaderInternetReachingShallowConsolation Author:George Saunders
“One thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they're just infested with lots of stuff.” FirstsStuffCommonOne ThingReader Author:Terry Pratchett