Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
Reading a good long novel is in many ways like having a long and satisfying affair
Interpretation
Reading a novel can provide a deep emotional experience similar to a fulfilling relationship.
Stephen King's quote suggests that engaging with a well-written novel can evoke strong emotions and provide a sense of satisfaction akin to that found in a romantic affair. Just as a long and satisfying relationship offers moments of joy, conflict, and resolution, so too does immersing oneself in an expansive narrative allow readers to explore complex characters, themes, and plots that resonate on a personal level.
In practice
During a book club meeting when discussing the emotional impact of a favorite novel.
Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
Readers of fiction read, I think, for a deeper embrace of the world, of reality. And that's brave. I never get over being thankful for that - for the courage of my readers.
Not every novel that wants to be a tragedy gets to be one.
When I wrote 'Lord of the Flies' - I had no idea it would even get published.
After I had my son I looked everywhere for a book that might serve as some kind of mirror. I bought so many silly books. Now I see what the problem was: I wanted a book about time-about mortality. I can't think of a writer who is at once so experimentally daring and so rigorously uncompromising as Sarah Manguso. Ongoingness is an incredibly elegant, wise book, and I loved it.
Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.
We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.
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