“Reading a poem is a real thing, a worthy thing. So to be there right with the reader at that moment is part of the effect of a title like "Poem for" something or other. Matt Rohrer does this a lot in his titles, and I think I might have gotten some of the idea to do this, or at least been reminded of how it can work, from his recent amazing books.” ThinkingDoeBookIdeasRealMomentsMightReadingEffectsReaderWorthyTitlesThat MomentReal ThingsAmazing BookWorthy Things Author:Matthew Zapruder
“I'm more than a little suspicious of humor in poems, because I think it can at times be a way of getting a reaction out of a reader, or an audience, that is something closer to relief: i.e., thank god this isn't poetry, but stand-up comedy. Some poets are really funny, but more often poets are fourth rate stand up comics at best. But they benefit from the sheer relief of the audience.” ThinkingWayLittlesAudienceComedyPoetReaderBenefitsRateReactionsReliefThank GodFourthSheerSuspiciousStand Up Comedy Author:Matthew Zapruder
“The first hit on the nervous system is the one I'm most interested in, because I think if you hit the reader emotionally, the reader can't guarantee the lessons they would like to learn.” IfsThinkingFirstsReaderLessonsNervousGuaranteesNervous System Author:Fred D'Aguiar
“I am not sure how a novel changes the world. I think it alters a reader's perspective by asking him or her to see the world through another consciousness. That can perhaps cause people to see their own lives differently. Or just give a single day, a single moment, a slightly different sheen.” PeopleThinkingWorldGivingDifferentMomentsCausesConsciousnessNovelPerspectiveReaderAskingNot SureChanging The WorldSingle Mom Author:Edan Lepucki
“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 don't think we need a critic to negotiate with the audience. People say, "Who are you writing for?" I'm writing for myself but my audience is anybody who knows how to read. I think a story should engage anybody who knows how to read. And I hope that my stories do, maybe on a different level for more sophisticated readers than, say, a high school kid, but still a story has got to grab you. That's why we read it.” PeopleThinkingKnowsNeedsShouldWritingStillsDifferentStoriesKidsSchoolLevelsAudienceKnow HowReaderHigh SchoolCriticsSophisticatedDifferent Levels Author:T.C. Boyle
“Fiction is more dangerous than nonfiction because it can seduce better. I think we all know this, know that deeper truths can be approached in fiction than in fact. There are risks for the reader, because after reading certain books you find you have changed irreversibly. There are risks for writers: in China, now, and Ethiopia and other countries right now, writers face real persecution.” ThinkingKnowsBookRealCountryFactsFacesCertainReadingFictionRiskDangerousChangedReaderRight NowChinaDeeperNonfictionOther CountriesPersecutionSeducingEthiopiaYou Have Changed Author:Chris Abani
“I don't think about the reader in any conscious way that impacts the writing, as far as, Hey, most readers would like this! But at the same time, if it were presented to me: "John, you're going to write a novel. It's going to take you a few years. When you're done with it, there's a law that no one's allowed to read it." I don't think I would write it. I want someone to read it!” IfsThinkingWayWantWritingYearsDoneLawNovelReaderConsciousImpactHey Author:John Brandon
“I have three boys. And I wanted to make sure it connected with them and then those guys who grew up like me, in environments like me.And then I knew something about science that your New York Times reader would be interested in. So I was thinking about it in multiple ways: I'll connect with the people who grew up like me first, and then the New York Times reader will be interested in the science because it's so good and they want to be "in the know."” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayWantFirstsWould BeWantedGuyThreeBoysEnvironmentNew YorkGrewReaderGrew UpConnectedLike MeMultipleNew York Times Author:Carl Hart
“I think narrators expect a high level of intimacy with their readers, and vice versa.” ThinkingLevelsReaderVicesIntimacyVice VersaHigh LevelNarrators Author:Tom Barbash
“I didn't think of the narrative as making a judgment. It didn't occur to me the reader would either, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible there would be that risk.” ThinkingMeanWould BeRiskReaderJudgmentNarrative Author:Rachel Kushner
“I think the online space can be a free space, in that we are not reliant online on the publishing industry or readers who just don't get it.” ThinkingSpaceIndustryReaderOnlinePublishingPublishing Industry Author:Kate Zambreno
“I don't read the "letters" section of Time magazine. I think it's just my habit as a reader. I don't read comments on stories, in general.” ThinkingStoriesReaderHabitLettersMagazinesCommentSectionsTime Magazine Author:Joel Stein
“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.” ThinkingWayTryingWellsLongHas BeensMadeBookDifferentHelpingReaderListsDifferent WaysEtcReviewsPublishersLong Life Author:Danielle Dutton
“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
“I read a lot; I tried to understand the mechanisms that made the books I liked successful, and I went that route. So, as for readers - when I think about them I like to think they read the same books I do.” ThinkingMadeBookSuccessfulReaderMechanismRoutes Author:Kevin Keck
“Most writers are lazy intellectuals, and it's a goddamn shame because a writer with an audience has a moral responsibility to make readers think about the world in a different way than what they're used to. Why else would you pick up a book if not to inhabit another realm of existence for a while?” IfsThinkingWorldWayBookDifferentUsedExistenceResponsibilityMoralAudienceReaderPicksShameDifferent WaysRealmsLazyMoral Responsibility Author:Kevin Keck
“I'm quite a good reader of people; I like to meet people, and I can tell if they're lying or not, and I've certainly had interviews with people in this radio show I've done that swear they've seen things or have had bizarre experiences with creatures, and so I think they're telling the truth.” PeopleIfsThinkingI CanDoneShowsLyingReaderCreaturesRadioInterviewsTelling The TruthSwearBizarre Author:Rhys Darby
“With a novel, you have to have a story. It's much more important to have it matter to the reader what happens to people, and it has to make sense and end in a way that is satisfying. So I spend a lot more time thinking about that. Then the writing itself usually is easier for me, because I know where it's going.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayWritingImportantEndsMatterStoriesHappensNovelReaderEasierMake SenseMore TimeSatisfying Author:Dave Barry
“One of the things that's amazing about reading the private writing of these folks is that they enthusiastically describe things which we have now seen, and which are widely regarded as unappealing. They'll write, "It's going to be beautiful, we're going to have a town of 1,000 stone buildings that are all identical." And we as modern readers think, we've seen that; that's bad Soviet architecture or a public housing project. Nobody fantasizes about living there.” ThinkingWritingBeautifulReadingModernBuildingReaderProjectsStonesTownsFolksArchitectureSovietHousingIdenticalPublic Housing Author:Christine Jennings
“I think that in a lot of readers' minds the essay is a lot more utilitarian than it is art.” ThinkingMindArtReaderEssaysUtilitarian Author:John D'Agata
“I believe young children in particular enjoy witnessing the survival of youthful protagonists against terrible odds. I think it's gratifying to the reader when you give young characters that kind of agency.” ThinkingGivingBelieveKindChildrenCharacterYoungI BelieveEnjoyParticularReaderTerribleSurvivalAgencyOddsYoung ChildrenProtagonists Author:Robert Paul Weston
“I don't think readers of Mann have overlooked the fact that he was a great ironist, but they have tended to see the irony in particular parts of the novella, and to miss it in others.” ThinkingFactsMissingParticularReaderIronyOverlooked Author:Philip Kitcher
“What's fascinating is where they come from in the world. People in Bangladesh, a chap in a fire-base in Tikrit in Iraq. Chap in an Irish pub in Dublin. And lovely to think this literary network - or rather network of readers - is well spread out.” PeopleThinkingWorldWellsFireReaderIraqSpreadLovelyFascinatingPubsBangladeshDublinChaps Author:John Gimlette
“I don't think writers should be convenient examples. I don't think we should make people feel settled. I don't try to be a gadfly, but I do think that real ideas are troublesome. There should be something about my work that leaves the reader unsettled. I intend that.” PeopleThinkingFeelsShouldTryingIdeasRealExampleReaderConvenientTroublesomeGadflies Author:Richard Rodriguez
“I'm not entirely sure what a historical novel absolutely has to be, but you don't want a reader who loves a very traditional historical novel to go in with the expectation that this is going to deliver the same kind of reading experience. I think what's contemporary about my book has something to do with how condensed things are.” ThinkingWantKindBookReadingNovelReaderExpectationsHistoricalContemporaryTraditionalHistorical NovelsReading Experience Author:Danielle Dutton
“I think the way design was practiced for most of the 20th century was very declarative. A designer came up with a solution for a project and put it in place and shipped the solution and it landed in a reader or a customer's hands as a brochure. They would see it as a poster, or as a piece of signage. And that was sort of it. That was the end of it. I think Internet technology has really upended that whole equation because in some ways a designer's work is never really done online.” ThinkingWayEndsDoneWholeHandsTechnologyPiecesCenturyDesignReaderInternetProjectsSolutionsCustomersDesignerOnline20th CenturyEquationsPostersInternet TechnologyBrochures Author:Khoi Vinh
“I think in terms of educating a group of readers, MFA programs are very good. I just think the model of MFA programs in which a young poet goes through the program, publishes a series of books, gets teaching jobs, that's a bit at risk.” ThinkingBookJobsYoungBitsTermRiskGroupsTeachingPoetReaderModelsProgramSeriesVery GoodPublish Author:Edward Hirsch
“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
“You might ask yourself why you want to surprise your readers in the first place. A surprise ending is sort of like a surprise party. Probably some people, somewhere, enjoy having friends and trusted colleagues lunge at them in the sudden blinding light of their own living room, but I don't think most of us do.” PeopleThinkingWantFirstsLightMightAsksEnjoyRoomsPartyReaderSurpriseTrustedColleaguesLiving RoomBlinding LightSurprise Party Book:The Writing Class Source: The Writing Class
“But as I wrote the book [Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet], I tried to write it as clearly and directly and passionately as possible just thinking of communicating to readers who might want to learn about this great thinker and be inspired by him as I was.” ThinkingWantWritingBookMightReaderInspiredCommunicateProphetThinkerBe InspiredGreat Thinkers Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“I think if a writer is not endeavoring to expand and alter consciousness in himself and in his readers, he is not doing much of anything. It is precisely words, word lines, lines of words and images, and associations connected with these word and image lines in the brain, that keep you in present time, right where you are sitting now.” IfsThinkingLinesBrainConsciousnessReaderSittingConnectedWhere You AreAssociationPresent Time Author:William S. Burroughs
“It's pretty easy to think of the idea of a story, and maybe even to write a scene or two, but understanding the ebb and flow of a narrative, where to leave the little clues your protagonist (and reader) need, while playing fair, takes a lot more skill and patience than you might think.” ThinkingNeedsWritingLittlesTwoIdeasStoriesMightEasyUnderstandingReaderSceneSkillsFairsFlowNarrativeClueProtagonistsEbb And Flow Author:Dennis Green
“The 250-page outline for American Tabloid. The books are so dense. They're so complex, you cannot write like I write off the top of your head. It's the combination of that meticulousness and the power of the prose and, I think, the depth of the characterizations and the risks that I've taken with language that give the books their clout. And that's where I get pissed off at a lot of my younger readers.” ThinkingGivingWritingBookLanguageTakenRiskReaderPagesComplexesDepthCombinationProseOutlinesDenseTabloidsPissed OffCharacterizationClout Author:James Ellroy
“I know "accessibility" is a term that's kind of thrown around wantonly today, especially with talking about visual media. But I think that the strength of comics [is how they] really allow you to transcend those last barriers between a reader absorbing the information of an experience, and a reader being able to project themselves into the [experience of the] people about whom they're reading.” PeopleThinkingKnowsKindTodayAbleLastsReadingTermTalkingMediaInformationReaderProjectsVisualsThrownBarriersAbsorbingAccessibility Author:Nate Powell
“I love slow readers. And readers who think about what I've written, think about how it's written - and copy me!” ThinkingWrittenReaderCopies Author:Jacqueline Woodson
“Mainly, I try not to think about my readers as I write - I just think of my characters and myself - If they're interesting to me, my hope is that they'll be interesting to others as well.” IfsThinkingWritingTryingWellsCharacterInterestingReader Author:Jacqueline Woodson
“In the media, a reviewer has his personal vision but it's passed along to a million readers or whatever. He might think that this particular song sounds like Jo Blow. Or like a Bo Diddley record that he heard six years ago. But the artist who made the record may never have even heard the Bo Diddley song. We all respond differently.” ThinkingYearsMayMadeMightArtistSongSoundVisionMillionsRecordsHeardMediaParticularReaderSixYears AgoBlowReviewersPersonal Vision Author:Van Morrison
“I would not want to forget the first time I read The Lord of the Rings. I would never want to forget that! That was so magical to me, and that was a real eye-opening experience. I was probably 11 when I read that and already a reader, but I think that book really showed me how you can be transported and how your imagination can take you to a whole other place.” ThinkingWantFirstsBookRealWholeEyeImaginationForgetLordReaderFirst TimeRingsOpeningEye OpeningReal Eyes Author:Sharon Cameron
“I think that people who don't mind reading find the immersion and their ability to get into a deeper place with the story to be satisfying. That's the kind of reader I want.” PeopleThinkingWantMindKindStoriesReadingAbilityReaderDeeperSatisfyingImmersionMind Reading Author:Rick Remender
“I think it has as much to do with honoring my own voice as it does with feeling a responsibility to my readers or my daughters.” ThinkingDoeFeelingsVoiceMy OwnResponsibilityReaderDaughterMy Daughter Author:Jennifer Weiner
“I think the Hulk has always appealed very strongly to much younger readers than Spider-Man, because Spider-Man is an adolescent character, and the Hulk is a very childlike character.” ThinkingMenCharacterReaderVery StrongSpidersChildlikeSpider Man Author:Kurt Busiek
“I thought if I was open and honest, it would help the reader to get open and honest, and they also would realize sometimes when you write a book, people think you're an expert and that's not always true.” PeopleIfsThinkingWritingBookSometimesHelpingRealizingHonestReaderExperts Author:John C. Maxwell
“The minute you finish a piece of writing it doesn't belong to you, you don't write it any more, it belongs to you, the reader, the listener, the audience. So the less you know about whether or not this is me talking about my life or this is me talking about your life, I think the better. Then it can belong to you and it can live outside of the moment in which it was conceived.” ThinkingKnowsWritingMomentsTalkingAudiencePiecesMinutesReaderListenersThis Is Me Author:Kate Tempest
“I think the best writers are voracious readers who pick up the cadences and the feel of narration through a number of different books. And you begin by maybe copying the style of writers that really knocked you out.” ThinkingFeelsBookDifferentNumbersStyleReaderPicksCopyingCadenceNarrationDifferent Books Author:Stephen King
“If readers like The Thorn and the Blossom, which I would call literary fantasy, I think they would like books such as Elizabeth Hand's Mortal Love, Catherynne Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, and Kelly Link's Stranger Things Happen.” IfsThinkingBookHandsHappensGirlFantasyReaderStrangerThings HappenShipsMortalsLinks Author:Theodora Goss
“I think that the more alien and strange a world or situation is, the more concise you have to be if you want the reader to follow you. It depends on what effect you're looking for.” IfsThinkingWorldWantSituationEffectsStrangeDependsReaderAliensConcise Author:Karin Tidbeck
“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 don't think a novel's main donation, main gift, is the document. The document is there, but a novel goes beyond documentation. It goes into opening a new vista, opening a new perspective, showing familiar things in an unfamiliar way, and making the reader reconsider the documentary facts which he or she may have known before.” ThinkingWayMayFactsKnownNovelPerspectiveReaderFamiliarOpeningDocumentsDocumentariesUnfamiliarDonationVistasDocumentationNew PerspectiveFamiliar Things Author:Amos Oz