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Reader Quotes

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Reader Quotes

“Robert Frost says in a piece of homely doggerel that he has hoped wisdom could be not only Attic but Laconic, Boeotian even - "at least not systematic"; but how systematically Frostian the worst of his later poems are! His good poems are the best refutation of, the most damning comment on, his bad: his Complete Poems have the air of being able to educate any faithful reader into tearing out a third of the pages, reading a third, and practically wearing out the rest.”

Able Reading Pieces Air Worst Reader Pages Thirds Faithful Comment Educate Systematic Frost Having Hope Attics Homely Refutation Laconic

Author:Randall Jarrell

“The first class of readers may be compared to an hour-glass, their reading being as the sand; it runs in and runs out, and leaves not a vestige behind. A second class resembles a sponge, which imbibes everything, and returns it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtier. A third class is like a jelly-bag, which allows all that is pure to pass away, and retains only the refuse and dregs. The fourth class may be compared to the slave of Golconda, who, casting aside all that is worthless, preserves only the pure gems.”

“I seem to have three categories of readers. The first is nonbelievers who are glad that I am reading the Bible so they don't have to bother. The second group, which is quite large, is very Biblically literate Jews. And the third, which is also very large, is Christians, most of them evangelical. The evangelical readers and the Jewish readers have generally been very encouraging, because they appreciate someone taking the book they love so seriously, and actually reading it and grappling with it.”

Firsts Book Seems Christian Three Reading Groups Reader Appreciate Thirds Jew Glad Bother Categories Evangelical Grappling Reading The Bible

Author:David Plotz

“In literary representation, the distinction between the genuinely erotic and the licentious is a distinction not of subject-matter, but of perspective. The genuinely erotic work is one which invites the reader to re-create in imagination the first-person point of view of someone party to an erotic encounter. The pornographic work retains as a rule the third-person perspective of the voyeuristic observer.”

Source: Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation

“You can do the best research and be making the strongest intellectual argument, but if readers don't get past the third paragraph you've wasted your energy and valuable ink.”

Ifs Past Energy Can Do Reader Intellectual Research Argument Thirds Valuable Strongest Ink Do The Best Paragraph

Author:Carl Hiaasen

“To me, the print business model is so simple, where readers pay a dollar for all the content within, and that supports the enterprise. The web model is just so much more complicated, and involves this third party of advertisers, and all these other sources of revenue that are sort of provisional, but haven't been proven yet.”

Simple Party Pay Support Havens Source Reader Models Thirds Dollars Complicated Enterprise Print Proven Revenue Business Models Advertisers Third Parties

Author:Dave Eggers

“There are some simple maxims which I think might be commended to writers of expository prose. First: never use a long word if a short word will do. So, if you want to make a statement with a great many qualifications, put some of the qualifications in separate sentences. Third: do not let the beginning of your sentence lead the reader to an expectation which is contradicted by the end.”

Ifs Thinking Want Firsts Long Ends Use Might Simple Reader Expectations Thirds Sentences Statements Great Men Prose Maxims Qualifications Short Words Long Words

Book:The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell

Source: The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell

“The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn't induce him to continue to the third sentence, it's equally dead.”

Ifs Firsts Important Reader Thirds Sentences Articles

Author:William Zinsser

“There are three big things going for The Scorpio Races: first, it is set on a beautiful but wild island in the middle of the cold Atlantic Ocean. That would've seduced me as a teen reader. Second, It is full of beautiful but killer horses being trained for a dangerous race. Actually, that would've seduced me as a teen reader as well. At third it involves a very repressed love story with a very Mr. Darcy-like love interest.”

“I think precision in writing goes hand in hand with not trying to say everything. You try and say two-thirds, so the reader will involve himself or herself.”

Thinking Writing Trying Two Hands Reader Thirds Hand In Hand Precision

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“Literature may open a third eye in the middle of the reader's forehead.”

May Eye Literature Middle Reader Thirds Foreheads Third Eye

Author:Amos Oz