Reader Quotes - Page 32

• What a poem means is as much what it means to others as what it means to the author; and indeed, in the course of time a poet may become merely reader in respect to his own works, forgetting his original meaning.

  T. S. Eliot

  Mean, Poetry, May

  T. S. Eliot (1986). “The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism: Studies in the Relation of Criticism to Poetry in England”, p.122, Harvard University Press

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• A novel is a printed circuit through which flows the force of a reader's own life.

  E. L. Doctorow

  Fiction, Flow, Force

  E.L. Doctorow (2011). “Jack London, Hemingway, and the Constitution:: Selected Essays, 1977-1992”, p.147, Random House

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• A new reader shouldn't be able to find you in your work, though someone who's read more may begin to.

  E. L. Doctorow

  May, Able

  "EL Doctorow: 'I don't have a style, but the books do'" by Sarah Crown, www.theguardian.com. January 22, 2010.

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• I do not allow fan-fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan-fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes.

  Anne Rice

  Writing, Character, Thinking

  "'Fifty Shades of Grey' shines light on erotic fan fiction" By Stephanie Goldberg, www.cnn.com. April 6, 2012.

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• The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Reading, Thinking

  Samuel Johnson (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.398, Harvard University Press

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• The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principle subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Mind, Principles

  William Shakespeare, Edmond Malone, Samuel Johnson (1840). “The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare: With Notes Critical, Historical and Explanatory, Selected from the Most Eminent Commentators”, p.18

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• There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher. Fontenelle says he would undertake to persuade the whole public of readers to believe that the sun was neither the cause of light or heat, if he could only get six philosophers on his side.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Philosophy, Believe, Science

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• I think, above all, the characters in my novels feel universal to the readers.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Character, Thinking, Novel

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• Good readers make much out of little.

  Irving Howe

  Book, Reading, Littles

  Irving Howe (1995). “A Critic's Notebook”, Harvest Books

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• 'Dreams From My Father' reveals more about Obama than is usually known about political leaders until after they're dead. Perhaps more than it intends, it shows his mind working, in real time, sentence by sentence, in what feels like a private audience with the reader.

  Jonathan Raban

  Dream, Father, Real

  "He tried his best to veil it, but Obama is an intellectual" by Jonathan Raban, www.theguardian.com. November 7, 2008.

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• A writer stops writing the moment he or she puts the last full stop to their text, and at that point the book is in limbo and doesn't come to life until the reader picks it up and the reader flips the pages.

  Alberto Manguel

  Book, Writing, Pages

  "Conversation: Alberto Manguel". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. February 19, 2010.

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• It used to be that readers were relegated because they considered themselves far above society, and so the metaphor of the ivory tower developed. Now there's still this idea that the reader doesn't take part in the social game and in politics, the res publica, but for other reasons: he doesn't do it because he's not making any money.

  Alberto Manguel

  Ivory Tower, Games, Ideas

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• Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not only is there a mass of quotable stuff he never quotes, but an even vaster realm of which he has never heard.

  Robertson Davies

  Book, Ignorance, Stuff

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• Notice how every science fiction movie or television show starts with a shot of the location where the story is about to occur. Movies that take place in outer space always start with a shot of stars and a starship. Movies that take place on another world always start with a shot of that planet. This is to let you know where you are. Novels and stories start the same way. You have to give the reader a sense of where he is and what's happening as quickly as possible. You don't want to start the story by confusing the reader.

  David Gerrold

  Stars, Writing, Space

  David Gerrold (2001). “Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy”, Writers Digest Books

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• Never look for the story in the 'lede.' Reporters are required to put what's happened up top, but the practiced pundit places a nugget of news, even a startling insight, halfway down the column, directed at the politiscenti. When pressed for time, the savvy reader starts there.

  William Safire

  Nuggets, Looks, News

  "How to Read a Column" by William Safire, www.nytimes.com. January 24, 2005.

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• Our loneliness makes us avid column readers these days.

  Edward Hoagland

  Loneliness, Avid, Columns

  Edward Hoagland (1983). “The tugman's passage”, Viking Pr

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• A reader kindly pointed out to me recently that most of the quotes I include are by men. And it's true. Personally, I don't even consider whether the author is male or female, nor even care much who the author is - what's significant is the message. Of course, women are equally capable of great insights, however in our culture it's not so long ago that women could not even be published

  Charlotte Bronte

  Men, Long Ago, Males

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• My shorthand answer is that I try to write the kind of book that I would like to read. If I can make it clear and interesting and compelling to me, then I hope maybe it will be for the reader.

  David McCullough

  Book, Writing, Interesting

  Interview with Bruce Cole, www.neh.gov. May/June 2003.

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• The ways in which a book, once read, stays (and changes) in the reader's mind are unpredictable.

  Julian Barnes

  Book, Mind, Way

  "The road not taken" by Julian Barnes, www.theguardian.com. October 8, 2005.

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• There will always be non-readers, bad readers, lazy readers - there always were.

  Julian Barnes

  Lazy

  "Julian Barnes: my life as a bibliophile" by Julian Barnes, www.theguardian.com. June 29, 2012.

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• Writers don't always know what they mean - that's why they write. Their work stands in for them. On the page, the reader meets the authoritative, perfected self; in life, the writer is lumbered with the uncertain, imperfect one.

  John Lahr

  Writing, Mean, Self

  "Reality Checks" by John Lahr, www.newyorker.com. May 31, 2010.

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• A writer's job is to give the reader a larger vision of the world.

  Natalie Goldberg

  Jobs, Giving, Vision

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• I contend that in the kind of nonfiction I write, and that other people also pursue, anything is permissible provided the reader knows what you're taking liberties with.

  William Least Heat-Moon

  Writing, People, Liberty

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• There was a time when the average reader read a novel simply for the moral he could get out of it, and however na?ve that may have been, it was a good deal less na?ve than some of the limited objectives he has now. Today novels are considered to be entirely concerned with the social or economic or psychological forces that they will by necessity exhibit, or with those details of daily life that are for the good novelist only means to some deeper end.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Book, Mean, Average

  1960 'Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction'. Paper read at Wesleyan College, Fall.

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• The reader wants to see something happen between pages one and four hundred, and nothing happens if the characters don't change.

  Terry Brooks

  Character, Four, Want

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