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.
I've been asked this question so many times, do you feel you need to write a book for adults? No, I don't need to write a book for adults.
I remember tearing up the first time I read Nabokov's description, in 'Speak, Memory,' of his father being tossed on a blanket by cheering muzhiks, with its astonishingly subtle foreshadowing of grief and mourning.
Americans think African writers will write about the exotic, about wildlife, poverty, maybe AIDS. They come to Africa and African books with certain expectations.
For me alone Don Quixote was born and I for him. His was the power of action, mine of writing.
In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language; the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it.
I am still bowled over by this great young adult novel by David Levithan called 'Every Day,' which is about a character with no gender or body who wakes up every day in the body of a different person. It's a really impressive execution of a really great premise.
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