some mornings... I sit at the kitchen table shaking salt into the hairs on my arm, and a feeling shoves up in me: it's finished. Everything went past without me.
Jennifer EganRead
It's our job as fiction writers to provide a delight that nothing else can - to such a degree that people have no choice but to read our work. Now that's a very tall order, if not impossible. But why not try?
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fiction writers aim to create an extraordinary experience that compels readers to engage with their work.
This quote emphasizes the unique responsibility of fiction writers to craft stories that offer unparalleled enjoyment and fulfillment to readers. Egan acknowledges the challenge inherent in this pursuit, suggesting that while it may seem impossible to achieve such a profound impact, the effort to do so is worthy and essential in the realm of literature.
Themes
FictionWritingImaginationCreativityStories
In practice
Example use cases
In a writer's workshop to inspire fellow authors.
More from Jennifer Egan
All quotes →I think there are ways in which we censor ourselves; that's the most dangerous kind of censorship - that's how hegemony works.
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And Alex understood that Scotty Hausmann did not exist. He was a word casing in human form: a shell whose essence has vanished.
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We live in a moment and a culture when reading is really endangered. There's simply no way to write well, though, if you're not reading well.
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