Part of the transaction between writer and reader is the pleasure of building a community and encouraging people to play along.
I don't have an e-reader. One reason is that I like to dog-ear the page when I find a particularly good sentence or passage.
I like moral judgment to emerge from the reader. We are being sold a very simplistic morality by our leaders at a time when nuance and understanding are at a premium.
On a daily basis there are some huge ones that are, sure, from time to time, but it is helping the reader sort through all this sort of gray stuff out there.
Many readers know my work first through 'Housekeeping,' simply because it was my only novel for a pretty long time.
I think you tell the story that has to be told. You tell the story that's the truth. You tell the story that readers will be interested in and should know about.
Hanna Schmitz: [to Michael] You don't have the power to upset me. You don't matter enough to upset me.
Most people don't have the money to spend on advertising to create awareness among readers, nor do they have the contacts at newspapers or magazines to get their books reviewed.
What's the function of poetry? It's to express general truths, to connect with the reader and make him think: 'Wow, I've experienced that, but you've expressed it so much better.'
Humour is a fine line to walk in poetry, as in fiction. I just think it's harder to write. It's harder to keep the respect of the reader too.
Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the head of the reader. You learn the weight of words and how they sound to the ear.
Poetry and prose are of equal importance to me as a reader, and there doesn't seem to be much difference in my own writing.
Writing can sometimes be exploitative. I like to take a few steps of remove in order to respect the privacy of the subject. If readers make the link, they have engaged with the poem.
One of the many things that surprised me about 'Wool' is how many of its fans don't consider themselves science fiction readers.
My favorite books are the ones that make me smile for hours after reading them. I want that for my readers, for the sweetness to linger. Sort of like chocolate, but without the calories.
I think of novels in architectural terms. You have to enter at the gate, and this gate must be constructed in such a way that the reader has immediate confidence in the strength of the building.
I love the fact that so many of my readers are intelligent, exceptional, accomplished people with an open-minded love of diversity.
I trust, that your readers will not construe my words to mean, that I would not have gone to a 3 o'clock in the morning session, for the sake of defeating the Nebraska bill.
As every reader knows in his or her heart, there is much more to truth than mere fact.
Serial novels have an unexpected effect; they hook the writer as well as the reader.
I want to make sure that my writing grips the reader from the word 'go.'
