“The only pressure I feel is to write good books. And to not replicate the previous book. Whether you have a thousand readers or a million readers it doesn't change the pressure. I never feel tempted to give the reader what I think the reader wants.” ThinkingWantGivingFeelsWritingBookMillionsReaderThousandPressureTemptedGood BookReplicate Author:Jo Nesbo
“Most chess books only sell a few thousand copies, and a book titled something like "Women in Chess" would sell even fewer. The idea with this title was to spread the book outside the competitive chess world. I'm interested in attracting readers who love chess but play only casually, and feminists interested in male-dominated fields.” WorldBookIdeasPlayFieldsReaderThousandSellsMalesFeministSpreadChessTitlesCopiesFewer Author:Jennifer Shahade
“It is easier for the reader to judge, by a thousand times, than for the writer to invent. The writer must summon his Idea out of nowhere, and his characters out of nothing, and catch words as they fly, and nail them to the page. The reader has something to go by and somewhere to start from, given to him freely and with great generosity by the writer. And still the reader feels free to find fault.” FeelsStillsBookIdeasCharacterReadingGivenJudgingReaderEasierThousandPagesFaultsGenerosityNailsBook Reading Author:Fay Weldon
“Between Malraux, Balzac, and Montaigne, I choose Montaigne. Montaigne will survive all the others, because the essay, meaning direct communication between the writer and his reader, will outlast the novel, by at least a thousand years.” YearsNovelCommunicationReaderThousandDirectThousand YearsEssaysBalzacDirect Communication Author:Gore Vidal
“I think that an anthill is better than a nest ... that in the anthill among a hundred thousand or a million you are freer than in a nest, where all sit around and look at one another, waiting until scientists finally discover ways to make us mind readers. ... the psychology of the nest is loathsome to me, and I always sympathize with one who flees his nest, even if he flees into an anthill, where it may be crowded but one can find solitude - that most natural, most worthy state of man, that precious and intense state of being conscious of the world and of oneself.” IfsThinkingMenWorldWayMindLooksMayStatesWaitingNaturalMillionsPsychologyReaderThousandSolitudeConsciousHundredScientistOneselfWorthyIntenseCrowdedNests Author:Nina Berberova
“When the great Kepler bad at length discovered the harmonic laws that regulate the motions of the heavenly bodies, he exclaimed: "Whether my discoveries will be read by posterity or by my contemporaries is a matter that concerns them more than me. I may well be contented to wait one century for a reader, when God Himself, during so many thousand years, has waited for an observer like myself.” YearsWellsMayMatterBodyLawWaitingCenturyReaderGeniusThousandDiscoveryConcernHeavenlyLengthThousand YearsObserversPosterityHeavenly BodiesKepler Author:Thomas B. Macaulay
“Especially on Broadway, composers and lyricists fretted over their creations, obsessed over every rhyme, every critical chord or interval. The stakes were so high. On Broadway, people were watching and judging, especially newspaper critics who knew a thousand ways to slice and dice a songwriter for the entertainment of hundreds of thousands of faithful readers. There was no anonymity for the Broadway songwriter. Even the best could find themselves stripped naked the morning after by the tastemakers and their readers.” PeopleWayWritingMorningCreationJudgingReaderThousandCriticsEntertainmentCriticalNewspapersNakedFaithfulObsessedSongwritingStakesComposerSongwritersRhymeBroadwayChordsIntervalsAnonymityDiceMorning AfterLyricists Author:Michael Kosser
“The key to good worldbuilding is leaving out most of what you create. You, as the author, had damn well better know the where all that dragon food comes from, but that doesn't mean that I, as a reader, want to read a five thousand word essay about you explaining it to me. I don't need to see the math, but I can tell by the details you provide whether or not you've thought these things through to their logical conclusions.” KnowsWantNeedsWellsMeanI CanFiveKeysReaderThousandLeavingDetailsMathConclusionDamnDragonsLogicalEssaysExplaining Author:Patrick Rothfuss
“I read a lot, but at the same time I'm not a particularly good or diligent or discriminating reader. I go through maybe close to a thousand or more books a year, but a lot of times I'll only read bits and pieces of any one individual text.” YearsBookIndividualBitsPiecesReaderThousandDiligentBits And Pieces Author:Dan Chaon
“Speaking as an outsider is the most authentic voice for a poet. Poets who have one hundred thousand or one million readers [as many South Korean poets do] might not be a real, authentic poet.” RealMightVoiceMillionsPoetReaderThousandHundredSouthOutsidersKorean Author:Kim Hyesoon
“Really, the greatest compliments about a book [One Thousand Gifts] are never about the book, or the author of the book, but about the reader and God and how the pages helped them connect at a deeper level.” BookLevelsReaderThousandPagesDeeperComplimentOne Thousand Gifts Author:Ann Voskamp