Reader Quotes - Page 14

Show me a novelist – or, indeed, a reader – who wasn’t a socially awkward, self-conscious adolescent, prone to clumsiness and excessive reading and I’ll… well, I’ll probably bang my shoulder on the door frame as I storm out. Many of the most unforgettable female fictional protagonists are gauche, self-doubting, plain and think too much.

Charlotte Mendelson

Reading, Thinking, Doors

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I love the fact that so many of my readers are intelligent, exceptional, accomplished people with an open-minded love of diversity.

Suzanne Brockmann

Intelligent, Diversity, People

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During half a century of literary work, I have endeavoured to introduce the philosophy of evolution into the sphere of literature, and to inspire my readers to think in evolutionary terms.

Johannes V. Jensen

Philosophy, Thinking, Inspire

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The violence in the Executioner books is merely stage-dressing for dramatizing the commitment and dedication Bolan has to his ideals and the lengths to which he will go to honor them. We can learn this message of love and commitment and carry it into our own lives without the violence and bloodshed, and of course it is this wish that fuels the writing. I do not want my readers to pick up a gun and follow Bolan's example; I want them to be stirred by his commitment and to find ways to meet the same challenges without resort to violent means.

Don Pendleton

Book, Writing, Mean

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Mack Bolan is a classic American hero. Readers like him and I feel very good about that.

Don Pendleton

Hero, Classic, Mack

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I love connecting with readers!

Sylvia Day

Connecting

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My stories are known for featuring fun, fearless Cosmopolitan-type heroines as well as delicious, dangerous heroes synonymous with Harlequin. Afterburn and Aftershock will be no exception. I'm excited to share these sizzling new romances with readers and to do so hand in hand with Harlequin and Cosmopolitan, beloved brands known for giving women exactly what they want.

Sylvia Day

Fun, Hero, Hands

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Ive been told by readers that they love how my heroes fall in love fast, first, and with conviction.

Sylvia Day

Falling In Love, Hero, Firsts

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I hope to encourage more children to discover and love reading, but I want to focus particularly on the appreciation of picture books…. Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older. The best ones leave a tantalising gap between the pictures and the words, a gap that is filled by the reader's imagination, adding so much to the excitement of reading a book.

Anthony Browne

Appreciation, Children, Book

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It should come as no surprise to readers of the MAPS Bulletin that psychedelic plants are used as a sacrament by many native cultures all over the world. It may not be so obvious that these same plants are often incorporated into the coming-of-age ceremonies of these various societies.

Rick Doblin

Age, Culture, World

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The writer has the advantage of a medium that can be contemplated many times over on the pages of a book or a magazine. The words lie on the page and the writer has an extended opportunity to imprint on his reader every meaning and nuance distilled from experience.

Bienvenido Lumbera

Lying, Book, Opportunity

Bienvenido Lumbera (1984). “Revaluation: essays on Philippine literature, cinema, and popular culture”

39 Copy quote

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The book it reminded me of most is Henry Miller’s The Books in My Life. Like Miller, Shields manages to convey his affection for and admiration of literature, and that, the enthusiasm and admiration, can revitalize the reader’s love for the art form. I’m grateful for How Literature Saved My Life because the book has made me think again – and for the first time in a while – 'Well, what is it we do when we read?' It’s a damned annoying question, but it needs to be asked now and then, and Shields has asked it in a way I find resonant and moving.

Andre Alexis

Art, Book, Grateful

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People do amazing things for love. Books are full of wonderful stories about this kind of stuff, and stories aren’t just fantasies, you know. They’re so much a part of the people who write them that they practically teach their readers invaluable lessons about life.

Mahbod Seraji

Book, Writing, People

Mahbod Seraji (2009). “Rooftops of Tehran: A Novel”, p.21, Penguin

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Most readers, then and now, have at some time experienced the humiliation of being told that their occupation is reprehensible.

Alberto Manguel

Occupation, Humiliation

"A History of Reading". Book by Alberto Manguel, 1996.

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Slothful, feeble, pretentious, pedantic, elitist - these are some of the epithets that eventually become associated with the absent minded scholar, the poor sighted reader, the book worm, the nerd.

Alberto Manguel

Book, Nerd, Poor

"A History of Reading". Book by Alberto Manguel, 1996.

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A writer's heart must beat. A reader's heart must hear it.

Patricia Lee Gauch

Heart, Beats

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The saints show us that being a baptized Christian means living as a new creation, rejoicing in a life radically different from the status quo of the world. All the holy people, whose lives fill this book, show readers how to let the grace of God in the sacraments create their lives anew.

Stephen J. Binz

Christian, Book, Mean

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The holy men and women, whose lives are told throughout this book, witness to the fact that the word of God is alive and has the power to transform us. By discovering these saints, readers will learn how to embody Scripture, letting it enlarge their hearts and mold their lives into the image of Christ.

Stephen J. Binz

Book, Heart, Men

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Reading is sometimes thought of as a form of escapism, and it’s a common turn of phrase to speak of getting lost in a book. But a book can also be where one finds oneself; and when a reader is grasped and held by a book, reading does not feel like an escape from life so much as it feels like an urgent, crucial dimension of life itself.

Rebecca Mead

Book, Reading, Doe

Rebecca Mead (2014). “My Life in Middlemarch”, p.24, Broadway Books

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What's your favorite book?' is a question that is usually only asked by children and banking identity-verification services--and favorite isn't, anyway, the right word to describe the relationship a reader has with a particularly cherished book. Most serious readers can point to one book that has a place in their life like the one that 'Middlemarch' has in mine.

Rebecca Mead

Children, Book, Identity

Rebecca Mead (2014). “My Life in Middlemarch”, p.184, Broadway Books

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Characters who are absolutely sure about what they do, who plunge ahead without fear, are not that interesting. We don’t go through life that way. In reality, we have doubts just like everyone else.
Bringing your Lead’s doubts to the surface in your plot pulls the reader deeper into the story, and this is an excellent way to coax the reader to lose himself in the story world you’re about to create.

James Scott Bell

Writing, Character, Reality

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As you consider whether to move a child into formal academic training, remember that we want our children to do more than just learn how to read and write; we want them to learn in such a way that they become lifelong readers and writers. If we push our children to start learning these skills too far ahead of their own spontaneous interest and their capacity, we may sacrifice the long-range goal of having them enjoy such pursuits.

Lilian Katz

Children, Moving, Writing

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As a reader, you’re often inside one or more character heads, so you know what they’re feeling, even if they can’t exactly say it, or they say it so obliquely that the other characters don’t catch it. Readers are frequently reminded of the gulf between what people say and what they mean, and such moments prod us to become more attuned to gesture, tone, and language.

Will Schwalbe

Character, Mean, People

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But editors are still the world's readers. And thus the eyes of the world.

Betsy Lerner

Eye, Editors, World

Betsy Lerner (2010). “The Forest for the Trees (Revised and Updated): An Editor's Advice to Writers”, p.122, Penguin

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I'm the slowest reader in the world, because I perform it all in my head.

Honor Blackman

World

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