Reader Quotes - Page 24

• If you ask any ordinary reader which of Dickens's proletarian characters he can remember, the three he is almost certain to mention are Bill Sykes, Sam Weller and Mrs. Gamp. A burglar, a valet and a drunken midwife-not exactly a representative cross-section of the English working class.

  George Orwell

  Character, Class, Ordinary

  George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.50, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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

  Nicholas Sparks

  Character, Thinking, Novel

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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 cherish my work and all of my readers.

  Kris Carr

  Cherish

  "The Myth of Finding Your Purpose" by Kris Carr, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 16, 2013.

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• I know that books seem like the ultimate thing that's made by one person, but that's not true. Every reading of a book is a collaboration between the reader and the writer who are making the story up together.

  John Green

  Book, Reading, Writing

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• I like to build places online where readers can have productive conversations about books.

  John Green

  Book, Online, Conversation

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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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• The better the book the more room for the reader.

  Holbrook Jackson

  Book, Rooms

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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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• Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms.' Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of journalistic jargon, are drawn to such arcane spellings as 'lede.' Where they lede, do not follow.

  William Safire

  Taken, Jargon, Columnists

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

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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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• Reader, I am myself the subject of my book; you would be unreasonable to spend your leisure on so frivolous and so vain a matter.

  Bernard Malamud

  Book, Would Be, Matter

  BERNARD MALAMUD (1979). “DUBLIN'S LIVES”

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• I have been commissioned to write an autobiography and I would be grateful to any of your readers who could tell me what I was doing between 1960 and 1974.

  Jeffrey Bernard

  Grateful, Writing, Would Be

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• If a writer disbelieves what he is writing, then he can hardly expect his reader to believe it.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Believe, Writing, Worship

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• A book, like a landscape, is a state of consciousness varying with readers.

  Ernest Dimnet

  Book, Landscape, Consciousness

  "The Art of Thinking". Book by Ernest Dimnet, p. 122, 1928.

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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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• Reasons for not keeping a notebook: 1) the ambiguity of the reader

  Lionel Trilling

  Notebook, Journalism, Reason

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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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• Fiction works when it makes a reader feel something strongly.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  Fiction, Feels

  “Jonathan Safran Foer” by Jennifer L. Knox, www.newyorker.com. June 14 & 21, 2010.

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• A prose writer never sees a reader walk out of a book; for a playwright, it's another matter. An audience is an invaluable education. In my experience, theatre artists don't know what they've made until they've made it.

  John Lahr

  Book, Artist, Theatre

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