There should really not be anything gratuitous in a work of art. Sometimes what seems as if it's gratuitous may be a… — Joyce Carol Oates Copy Share Image
I think it's more difficult now to write a spy thriller with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many authors have tried,… — Nelson DeMille Copy Share Image
The rules that I adhere to are the rules of minimalism. And those rules kind of force writing to be more filmic...… — Chuck Palahniuk Copy Share Image
The advantage of horror books is to take the reader and cut him out of the pack and work on him one… — Stephen King Copy Share Image
A writer stops writing the moment he or she puts the last full stop to their text, and at that point the… — Alberto Manguel Copy Share Image
Many, many readers have written asking me wistfully about the nature of Sam and Grace's relationship, and I can assure you, that… — Maggie Stiefvater Copy Share Image
I receive about 10,000 letters a year from readers, and in the first year after a book is published, perhaps 5,000 letters… — Dean Koontz Copy Share Image
I love computers. I love writing on them. I love gadgetry. The thing is: I am a slow reader. So, if I… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
The best programs are written so that computing machines can perform them quickly and so that human beings can understand them clearly.… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
We must be forewarned that only rarely does a text easily lend itself to the reader's curiosity... the reading of a text… — Paulo Freire Copy Share Image
Of course, we [ with Edward Herman] have a purpose: namely, to encourage readers to undertake what might be called "a course… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
The general ideas which are expressed in sketches, correspond very well to the art often used in poetry... every reader making out… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
The same authorities who insist upon beginnings, middles, and ends, declare that Great Literature (by which they mean the stories they have… — Gene Wolfe Copy Share Image
I would like to please the reader, and I think that surprise has to be an element of this, and that may… — John Ashbery Copy Share Image
Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea. Some bottles drown, some come… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Bookish people drolly claim to be addicted. I think, in some cases, this is literally true. . . . I suppose this… — Henrietta Rose-Innes Copy Share Image
You learn to write by writing, and by reading and thinking about how writers have created their characters and invented their stories.… — Jean M. Auel Copy Share Image
Then basically what was happening was that it was the middle '80s, and Rolling Stone realized that a lot of their readers… — P. J. O'Rourke Copy Share Image
If you put a pink cover on something, critics make a certain set of assumptions and may not even read the book.… — Jennifer Weiner Copy Share Image
I believe young children in particular enjoy witnessing the survival of youthful protagonists against terrible odds. I think it's gratifying to the… — Robert Paul Weston Copy Share Image
Art, it seems to me, should simplify finding what conventions of form and what detail one can do without and yet preserve… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Mourning Ruby is not a flat landscape: it is more like a box with pictures painted on every face. And each face… — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
I want readers turning pages until three o'clock in the morning. I want the themes of books to stick around for a… — Guy Gavriel Kay Copy Share Image
In a manner of speaking, the poem is its own knower, neither poet nor reader knowing anything that the poem says apart… — Allen Tate Copy Share Image
Do not tell me what to do, tell me what you do. Do not tell me what is good for me, tell… — George A. Sheehan Copy Share Image
Readers must be given room to bring their own emotions to a piece so crammed with emotional content; the writer must tenaciously… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
It's always hard when you're playing someone for a lot of people out there who are going to see the movie after… — Gary Oldman Copy Share Image
I believe the most intricate plot won't matter much to readers if they don't care about the characters, especially in a series.… — Jeff Abbott Copy Share Image
“Though the immediate impression of rebellion may obscure the fact, the task of authentic literature is nevertheless only conceivable in terms of… — Georges Bataille Copy Share Image
I just hope that readers and publishers continue to appreciate good writing and good storytelling in all their various forms. And I… — Karen Thompson Walker Copy Share Image
A story should be like a river, flowing and never stopping, your readers passengers on a boat, whirling downstream through constantly refreshing… — Ray Bradbury Copy Share Image
I'm an omniviorous reader, but I don't read what could overlap with my own work. It's like tuning a radio frequency -… — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
I think as long as you're straight with people, as long as you honor ground rules, as long as you serve your… — Mark Leibovich Copy Share Image
Abstracts, abridgments, summaries, etc., have the same use with burning-glasses,--to collect the diffused light rays of wit and learning in authors, and… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
Based on personal experience and not just on theory, Prayerwalk, offers readers practical insights on how to get up, get moving, and… — Robin Jones Gunn Copy Share Image
A reader, encountering a sentence about a barking dog, would have to dwell on why that choice was made at that moment.… — Jonathan Lethem Copy Share Image
The first person you should think of pleasing, in writing a book, is yourself. If you can amuse yourself for the length… — Patricia Highsmith Copy Share Image
I've still not written as well as I want to. I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa,… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
'Harry Potter' created a generation of readers in an era when kids could have disappeared into the depths of the Internet. That's… — Gary Ross Copy Share Image
Lansens is a willing storyteller… As a writer, she desires a particular kind of reader, one who wants above all to be… — Noah Richler Copy Share Image
![“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…” quote by Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fb3/noam-chomsky-42_agents_of-course-we-with-edward-herman-have-a-p_2562158.jpg)
![“Then basically what was happening was that it was the middle '80s, and Rolling Stone realized that a lot of their readers had voted for [Ronald] Reagan, and they were going, "Gosh! We need a Republican! Does anybody know a Republican? Wait a minute! I think P.J.'s a Republican!"” quote by P. J. O'Rourke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fe1/p-j-o-rourke-184_80s_then-basically-what-was-happening-was-th_1600927.jpg)
