“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!)” WayWantWritingI CanBookWholeStarsReaderCostLowsExpectationsPaidPostsJustifyEditorsReviewsNew WaysBlogs Author:Kate Christensen
“So if there was a way that I knew something about my character's desires or the things that they were resisting because I was saving it for some grand epiphany moment for my readers, I just feel like that's when you can feel the machine at work in a story. That's when you can feel the writer pulling the strings of the puppet.” IfsWayFeelsMomentsCharacterStoriesDesireReaderMachinesSavingStringsPullingPuppetsResistingEpiphany Author:Molly Antopol
“Unlike other books or TV shows or sometimes life, my narrative worlds are stripped of implicit moral centers. There is only what you bring. That makes the characters risky in every way and the narrative, a journey of change for the reader. But I make the journey as fun as I can.” WorldWayI CanBookSometimesCharacterShowsFunMoralJourneyTvsReaderNarrativeTv ShowsImplicitSometimes In Life 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
“The biggest experiment there - and I was convinced for a really long time that it was going to fail horribly - had to do with this weird thing I do every now and then. Like everyone else, as a reader there are certain things that really rub me the wrong way in fiction - pet bugbears, let's call them.” WayLongCertainFictionFailingReaderLong TimeConvincedExperimentsPetNow And ThenWrong WayWeird ThingsReally Long Author:Roy Kesey
“Very often, or perhaps more often, and even in very good collections - even in some of the best collections ever written, I would argue - it's because our "voicier" writers hew so closely to one given set of dictional tics that we as readers can't read the books all the way through in a single sitting, because if we did, the stories and their narrators would all start to bleed together.” IfsWayBookStoriesTogetherGivenWrittenReaderSittingVery GoodArguingCollectionsNarratorsTics Author:Roy Kesey
“I didn't intentionally emplace the raw material needed for political/allegorical readings into any of the first drafts, but sooner or later I saw it coming, and I did intentionally not cut it from some of the final drafts. In other words, I'm not particularly interested in encouraging readers to read certain stories that way, but I want to make sure that route's accessible should anyone be so inclined.” WayWantShouldFirstsStoriesPoliticalCertainReadingSawsCuttingMaterialsReaderNeededFinalsSooner Or LaterRoutesRaw Materials Author:Roy Kesey
“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
“Writing in a nuanced way, getting at all the details in a way that remains interesting for the reader, is very difficult.” WayWritingDifficultInterestingReaderRemainsDetails Author:Carl Hart
“An initial impulse of mine was to portray the way in which a city is impacted by war. But this is vague, no? After all, how do you actually have an entire city - or country, for that matter - be a character a reader can follow? One way is by making it smaller and personalizing it, by writing specifically about the citizens and the way they contend with the reality, even minutiae, especially minutiae, of their lives.” WayWritingWarCountryMatterCharacterRealityCitiesMinesReaderCitizensOne WayImpulseVagueInitialsMinutiae Author:Said Sayrafiezadeh
“By examining characters lighting the way to hell, as it were, are readers spared iniquity? Are stories a heeded warning, or merely an entertainment? Each story in the collection tries to wrestle with these questions.” WayTryingCharacterStoriesHellReaderEntertainmentCollectionsWarningLightingExaminingIniquity Author:Adam Ross
“In general, teaching writing makes me a far better reader because there's so many ways to write a good sentence or a good story, and as a teacher I'm obliged to consider them all, rather than staying in the safety of my own tendencies.” WayWritingStoriesMy OwnTeacherTeachingReaderSafetySentencesTendenciesStayingObligedGood StoryTeaching Writing Author:Leni Zumas
“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
“Names don't matter, CVs don't matter, previous publications don't matter at all, because, in a certain way, the ideal is for someone to come completely out of left field. And still, of course, it is hard to say no to a writer who matters a lot to you and who you know matters to your readers.” KnowsWayStillsMatterHardCertainCoursesNamesLeftFieldsReaderIdealsPublicationWho You KnowLeft Field Author:Lorin Stein
“By changing the way I experienced things, even just involving different details than in reality, I often felt I was betraying the past and playing an unfair game with the reader where he (of course) would ask himself "Did this really happen?"” WayDifferentRealityHappensPastCoursesAsksGamesFeltReaderDetailsBetrayUnfairInvolvingFair Game Author:Sasa Stanisic
“There is no one 'best set-up', there are many - you can get to mate in endless ways. And - don't forget! - in chess, like in literature, "the other" (the reader, the adversary, the partner, etc.) has to be a collaborator, has to work with you to get to the final goal. We depend on them! But they also depend on us.” WayLiteratureGoalForgetDependsReaderFinalsPartnersChessEndlessEtcMatesAdversariesCollaborators Author:Dumitru Tepeneag
“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
“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
“I intend Deaths in Venice to contribute both to literary criticism and to philosophy. But it's not "strict philosophy" in the sense of arguing for specific theses. As I remark, there's a style of philosophy - present in writers from Plato to Rawls - that invites readers to consider a certain class of phenomena in a new way. In the book, I associate this, in particular, with my good friend, the eminent philosopher of science, Nancy Cartwright, who practices it extremely skilfully.” WayBookPhilosophyCertainClassPracticeStyleParticularReaderCriticismPhilosopherArguingInvitesNew WaysGood FriendStrictAssociatesPlatoRemarksVeniceThesisNancyLiterary CriticismDeath In Venice Author:Philip Kitcher
“I suspect that any worthwhile exploration of these deep questions about living requires going beyond abstract discussions to the vivid presentation of possibilities. If readers are to be prompted to serious examination of their lives, anatomy isn't enough. We have to be stimulated to imagine, in some detail, what it would be like to live in particular ways.” IfsWayEnoughWould BeImaginePossibilityParticularSeriousReaderDetailsDiscussionAbstractSuspectsExplorationWorthwhileVividExaminationPresentationAnatomy Author:Philip Kitcher
“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
“Now, I do say, "It's possible. You might be the first. I'm not saying it's impossible, but the odds are very much against you." All great poets have been great readers and the way to learn your craft in poetry is by reading other poetry and by letting it guide you.” WayFirstsHas BeensMightReadingImpossiblePoetReaderGuidesCraftsPoetry IsOddsGreat Poet Author:Edward Hirsch
“Through Heaven's Gate and Back speaks to all of us that have been abused as children. Lee Thornton's descriptions of the aftereffects of repeated trauma and a profound Near-Death Experience (NDE) are not only true but explained in a way that the reader can take in. It is rare to find a book so well written that it has both sexual abuse and an NDE under one cover. We definitely will be recommending this book to our patients.” WayWellsChildrenHas BeensBookSpeakHeavenWrittenReaderAbuseProfoundPatientTraumaDescriptionGatesWell WrittenNear DeathNear Death Experience Author:Charles L. Whitfield
“I was, not an altar boy, but a reader of the Epistle, and I walked in on a nun and a priest furiously French kissing when I was in seventh grade. I walked in, saw it, and went, "No way," backed out, composed myself, and went back in, and it was still going on. And the experience of seeing that was actually very deep.” WayStillsBoysSawsSeeingReaderKissingGradesPriestsAltarsVery DeepNunSeventh GradeFrench Kiss Author:George Saunders
“I wouldn't have thought that the techniques of story-telling, which is what the novel is after all, can vary much because there are two things involved.There's a story and there's a listener, whose attention you have to keep. Now the only way in which you can keep a reader's attention to a story is in his wanting to know what is going to happen next. This puts a fairly close restriction on the method you must use.” KnowsWayTwoStoriesUseHappensNextAttentionNovelReaderInvolvedMethodTechniqueTwo ThingsListenersRestrictionVary Author:William Golding
“I love to fool my readers, but in a good way. If you've read any of my work, there's a good chance that at some point I surprised you.” IfsWayChanceFoolReaderGood WayGood Chance Author:Vera Nazarian
“In a way, I'm glad I'm first because I won't have to panic about following anybody other than industry legend John Romita Jr. And he drew Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, which is one of the books that had a massive effect on me as a reader and an artist. It has been intimidating, scary, exciting, and incredibly satisfying.” MenWayFirstsHas BeensBookArtistEffectsHe ManIndustryReaderExcitingFollowingScaryGladMassiveSatisfyingLegendsPanicIntimidatingDaredevil Author:Declan Shalvey
“I was interested first of all in trying to capture this myth that was always changing and to create some sort of a master story, some version of the myth that resonated with me, since I could have taken more or less any detail that I wanted or the opposite and try to put that down on the page in a way that I could express from that outset for myself and for our readers what it was that was so magical about [Buckminster] Fuller's way of putting together the world.” WorldWayTryingFirstsStoriesWantedTogetherTakenMastersReaderPagesOppositesDetailsMythVersionsCaptureBuckminster Fuller Author:Jonathon Keats
“You're talking to someone, to a reader, and you get to express in the way you want to. And you get to play with it. It's kind of like acting, but it's on paper.” WayWantKindPlayActingTalkingReaderPaperTalking To Someone Author:Parker Posey
“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
“Literature may make the reader reexamine some of his or her own conventions, look at himself or herself in a different way, look at others in a different way. This goes way beyond just making statements or manifesting principles.” WayLooksMayDifferentLiteraturePrinciplesReaderStatementsDifferent WaysManifestConventions Author:Amos Oz
“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
“I may be the person who put "dieselpunk" into the conversation. I have always been a reader who reads in a really broad way. I read genre writers and I read literary fiction and I read books by dead people.” PeopleWayMayPersonsBookFictionReaderConversationGenreBroadsDead People Author:Emily Barton
“I think of Mercy Watson like a superball; there's a bouncy kind of optimism to her stories. She allows me to play, and she makes me laugh. Hopefully readers feel the same way.” ThinkingWayFeelsKindPlayStoriesLaughingReaderOptimismMercyHopefullyThink Of MeWatsonMake Me Laugh Author:Kate DiCamillo
“It seems like every ten years there's a book that says that poetry used to be popular, and now it's not, but we really have no way of knowing, in terms of relative size of audience and other things, exactly who readers were.” WayYearsBookSeemsUsedTermAudienceKnowingReaderTenSizeUsed To BeRelative Author:Robert Hass
“I like nudging readers into a slightly different perspective, but in a sly way - I want to be the writer who slips a stiletto in and out, to make so swift and clean a cut, it's not until a chapter ends that the reader looks down and sees she's bleeding and asks what happened.” WayWantLooksDifferentEndsAsksCuttingHappenedPerspectiveReaderDown AndCleanSlipsChaptersBleedingDifferent PerspectiveSlyStilettos Author:Kathryn Harrison
“Of course, we [ with Edward Herman] have a purpose: namely, to encourage readers to undertake what might be called "a course in intellectual self-defense," and to suggest ways to proceed; in other words, to help people undermine the dedicated efforts to "manufacture consent" and to turn them into passive objects rather than agents who control their own fate.” PeopleWaySelfHelpingMightPurposeTurnsCoursesEffortFateObjectsReaderIntellectualDefenseAgentsDedicatedPassiveConsentSelf Defense Author:Noam Chomsky
“Best to say that once a poem is finished I trust it to make its way, and I trust readers will find their way to it and through it, if the thing has got itself rightly expressed.” IfsWayReaderFinished Author:Seamus Heaney
“I always think about myself as a writer; that comes out of being a reader first, and I don't think I kind of got to really playing with language in any formal way probably until I was in my mid-twenties.” ThinkingWayFirstsKindLanguageReaderTwentiesFormal Author:Junot Diaz
“Unbeknownst to me, two readers of the posts, both published authors, contacted their agent, Bill Jensen, within 24 hours of each other, encouraging him to drop me a line. Which he did. He shared his extensive publishing background with me, and prayerfully offered to work out a proposal and to see if God opened any publishing doors? I never get over the unexpected ways of God.” IfsWayTwoHoursLinesDoorsReaderBillsWork OutBackgroundsAgentsPostsUnexpectedPublishingGet OverProposal Author:Ann Voskamp
“I think [testing] has had a profoundly problematic impact on student learning. It must seem to students that their worth as individuals is equivalent to their test score. The stress the high stakes culture has on teachers is also highly negative and must surely impact students in a negative way. It also de-professionalizes teachers because it encourages them to be script readers, followers of rigid schedules, and to disregard the needs of the people they teach in favor of the scripts and schedules.” PeopleThinkingWayNeedsSeemsCultureIndividualTeachTeacherStudentsReaderNegativeTestsStressImpactScriptsFavorsScoreFollowersStakesSchedulesTestingDisregardStudent LearningTest Scores Author:Carol Ann Tomlinson
“I knew I had found my life's passion after writing my first column for The Washington Post. The response was like nothing we had seen in the business section. Everyday people were writing that finally someone was speaking to them in a way that was understandable. I think we were all shocked at how many readers wrote in to say that they too had a Big Mama who taught them about money.” PeopleThinkingWayWritingFirstsBigsPassionFoundTaughtReaderResponseEverydayPostsSectionsShockedMamaColumnsBig Mama Author:Michelle Singletary
“There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all.” WorldWayChildrenLittlesBookReadingPowerfulReaderImportanceYour ChildrenThought ProvokingReading BooksLiteracyBook ReadingGreat BookChildren's BooksBooks And ReadingLove Of ReadingReading HabitsWorld LoveFavorite BookChildren BookWriters ReadingWriting And ReadingJoy Of ReadingReading And LiteracyBook ReadersBooks For KidsReading AloudReading For KidsGreat ReadingChildren ReadingImportance Of ReadingInspirational ReadingLiteracy And ChildrenLiteracy For ChildrenChildren About ReadingThis Is A BookReading Books To ChildrenInspiring BookReading InspirationalInspiring ReadingInspirational Children Author:Jackie Kennedy
“It's an important moment as a reader, I think, when you can forget the question of whether you need to know what happened. Some people really want hard explanations. I'm the other way. I like mysteries. I don't want to frustrate people. I don't want people to feel like they got no answers, but I want to approach the mystery and sit with it.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayWantNeedsFeelsImportantHardMomentsAnswersForgetHappenedMysteryReaderApproachExplanationImportant Moments Author:John Darnielle
“We need heroes of color in all different genres. It's also valuable for white readers to be able to meet people in books that are different than themselves. That can be a way of expanding their minds and experiences.” PeopleWayNeedsMindBookDifferentAbleWhiteColorReaderHeroValuableGenreExpandingDifferent Genres Author:Kekla Magoon
“It might be helping to explore a story visually by going to see a museum exhibit that's relevant to something that somebody's reading, or going to see a show or listening to a piece of music or cooking a meal that's in one of the stories, something practical, something kinesthetic that draws the reader in and helps them to experience the story for themselves. Those are all ways I think we can kind of come in the back door and help kids find the joy, as opposed to the chore or responsibility, of reading.” ThinkingWayKindHelpingStoriesShowsMightKidsJoyReadingResponsibilityPiecesDoorsListeningReaderDrawsCookingPracticalsMealsMuseumsRelevantExhibitsChoresBack Doors Author:Emma Walton Hamilton
“I was really inspired by seeing self published zines and mini-comics: seeing someone else make work that was either really personal, or was just done entirely themselves. It really showed me what was possible for my own art, and I hope that my books will inspire readers in the same way.” WayArtBookSelfDoneMy OwnSeeingInspireReaderInspiredZines Author:Liz Prince
“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.” PeopleWayBookWorryKnowingReaderResponseCriticalUpsetReviews Author:Robert Cormier
“I think that actually the rhythmic nature of picture books and of young reader story books is a way to help kids fall in love with language and what you can do with it and how it sounds in your range. It sort of has a musicality but on the other hand they get the story and the ideas and the context of it. I think it's a way to get kids into it and I also think that when kids are around people who love books it rubs off on them.” PeopleThinkingWayBookIdeasHelpingStoriesHandsKidsYoungFallLanguageSoundCan DoReaderFalling In LoveRangePicture BooksMusicalityStory Book Author:Josh Prince
“I want to make sense of things, to understand the world, but my work is never really instructional. I have no wisdom to impart or give, so I think my dream readers would be people who just use the book as an excuse to get into their own cycle of thoughts. The book is just like a map. It's just a jotting-down of things that you can interpret in your own ways.” PeopleThinkingWorldWayWantGivingBookUseDreamWould BeReaderExcuseMake SenseCyclesMapsImpart Author:Sarnath Banerjee