Reader Quotes - Page 38

I've tried to make a book that's accessible to the ordinary, intelligent reader. Very often books that cover this kind of subject are written by academics, for academics. But I am not an academic.

Brian Crozier

Book, Intelligent, Ordinary

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In presenting a mathematical argument the great thing is to give the educated reader the chance to catch on at once to the momentary point and take details for granted: two trivialities omitted can add up to an impasse). The unpractised writer, even after the dawn of a conscience, gives him no such chance; before he can spot the point he has to tease his way through a maze of symbols of which not the tiniest suffix can be skipped.

John Edensor Littlewood

Two, Giving, Add

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The Architect is just one of a series of works which examine the confrontation of innocence and experience, illustrating the complex ethics of power that exist between reader and writer, critic and artist, the human and the divine.

John Scott

Artist, Innocence And Experience, Ethics

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When you write something new about science, other scientists may not like it but they pay attention because it is subject to proof. When you write something new about art, it is subject only to the reader's discomfort, and will probably be rejected.

Walter Darby Bannard

Art, Writing, Attention

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When you go to the mind reader, do you get half price?

David Letterman

Sarcastic, Intelligence, Mind

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The librarian of today, and it will be true still more of the librarians of tomorrow, are not fiery dragons interposed between the people and the books. They are useful public servants, who manage libraries in the interest of the public . . . Many still think that a great reader, or a writer of books, will make an excellent librarian. This is pure fallacy.

William Osler

Book, Thinking, Dragons

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The reader, the booklover, must meet his own needs without paying too much attention to what his neighbors say those needs should be.

Theodore Roosevelt

Needs, Attention, Too Much

Theodore Roosevelt (2013). “Bully!”, p.258, Simon and Schuster

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I wish I could have a little tape-and-loudspeaker arrangement sewn into the binding of this magazine, to be triggered off by the light reflected from the reader's eyes on to this part of the page, and set to bawl out at several bels: MORE WILL MEAN WORSE.

Kingsley Amis

Mean, Eye, Light

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[from a reader] I hope she learns to look for the joy in life instead of picking out negatives - it will change her life for the better.

Amy Dickinson

Women, Joy, Looks

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[from a reader] Whenever I feel myself resenting someone, I reach out. I have made good friends that way.

Amy Dickinson

Women, Good Friend, Way

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When I was a teenager, I was a voracious reader of crime fiction, but only contemporary books.

Michael Connelly

Teenager, Book, Fiction

"Michael Connelly on Bosch and His Part in the McConaissance". Interview with Bruce Fretts, www.esquire.com. February 11, 2015.

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I'd rather excite the imagination of a legion of readers and make pennies from each of them than hold off for a larger chunk of change from only a handful of fans.

Hugh Howey

Imagination, Fans, Pennies

"Hugh Howey Interview Part 1: Science Fiction, Indie Writing, and Success". Interview with Erik Wecks, www.wired.com. March 29, 2012.

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What are the hallmarks of a competent writer of fiction? The first, it seems to me, is that he should be immensely interested in human beings, and have an eye sharp enough to see into them, and a hand clever enough to draw them as they are. The second is that he should be able to set them in imaginary situations which display the contents of their psyches effectively, and so carry his reader swiftly and pleasantly from point to point of what is called a good story.

H. L. Mencken

Clever, Eye, Psych

The American Mercury Magazine, p. 136, May 1933.

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The National Book Festival is a great way for families and friends to share the creative works of some of America's most-loved authors, .. Readers of all ages can listen to favorite writers speaking about their books, have books autographed, meet many storybook characters and enjoy a day on the National Mall.

Laura Bush

Book, Character, America

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Giving a reader a sex scene that is only half right is like giving her half a kitten. It is not half as cute as a whole kitten; it is a bloody, godawful mess. A half-good sex scene is not half as hot; it actually moves into the negative numbers, draining any heat from the surrounding material.

Sandra Newman

Cute, Sex, Moving

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Eugene Peterson's language makes the Bible exciting and strong, sweet, sharp, persuasive, painful, personal, contemporary, kind, and dramatic—and available to every reader of this age.

Walter Wangerin

Sweet, Strong, Age

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If you aren't on Goodreads, you should be. I've said it before, it's like Facebook for readers on crack.

Colleen Hoover

Cracks, Should, Said

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A good writer refuses to be socialized. He insists on his own version of things, his own consciousness. And by doing so he draws the reader's eye from its usual groove into a new way of seeing things.

Bill Barich

Eye, Usual, Way

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The Transformation of the World is lavishly reinforced with critical apparatus (that, too, must have been a labor of Hercules to translate--I honestly never expected to see this book in English), but by far its greatest attraction is the intelligence and more important the wisdom of its author. It's a towering achievement no serious reader should miss.

Steve Donoghue

Book, Achievement, Missing

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Writing for young readers is almost like dipping into a fountain of youth; for hours a day, I am a child again.

Iain Lawrence

Children, Writing, Youth

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Bookish people drolly claim to be addicted. I think, in some cases, this is literally true. . . . I suppose this makes me a small-time pusher, holding a couple of capsules of a novel compound, looking for vulnerable readers for whom it might turn out to be habit-forming. There's enough of them. When I walk into a bookshop--one of the big ones, a vast dispensary stacked with complex uppers and downers--I can't help thinking, my God, what army of junkies is all this feeding?

Henrietta Rose-Innes

Couple, Army, Thinking

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And a more foolish notion can scarcely be imagined, it being obvious that the reader is only informed of what the writer wishes him to know, and is thus seduced into believing almost anything.

Iain Pears

Believe, Wish, Foolish

Iain Pears (1999). “AN Instance of the Fingerpost”, p.18, Penguin

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Big money, big Liberal Party politics and big media are trying to get rid of us, of course, by letting Packer take over Fairfax - a media-only company. But we're hanging in there and doing the best job we can for our readers while we can.

Margo Kingston

Jobs, Party, Media

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I like to be aware of a book as a piece of writing, and aware of its structure as a product of mind, and yet I want to be able to see the represented world through it. I admire artists who succeed in dividing my attention more or less evenly between the world of their books and the art of their books . . . so that a reader may study the work with pleasure as well as the world that it describes.

Annie Dillard

Art, Book, Writing

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As readers, we are seldom interested in the fine sentiments of a lesson learnt; we seldom care about the good manners of morals. Repentance puts an end to conversation; forgiveness becomes the stuff of moralistic tracts. Revenge - bloodthirsty, justice-hungry revenge - is the very essence of romance, lying at the heart of much of the best fiction.

Alberto Manguel

Revenge, Lying, Heart

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