Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.
Barbara W. TuchmanRead
The writer's object is - or should be - to hold the reader's attention.
Interpretation
Writers should aim to engage and captivate their readers.
This quote emphasizes the primary responsibility of a writer, which is to captivate their audience. Engaging the reader is essential for effective writing, as it ensures that the message is not only delivered but also received with interest and enthusiasm.
In practice
In a lecture on storytelling, this quote highlights the importance of reader engagement.
Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.
If a man is a writer, everybody tiptoes around past the locked door of the breadwinner. But if you're an ordinary female housewife, people say, 'This is just something Barbara wanted to do; it's not professional.'
A good example is far better than a good precept.
I think the crucial thing in the writing career is to find what you want to do and how you fit in. What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting variation.
How can we expect our children to know and experience the joy of giving unless we teach them that the greater pleasure in life lies in the art of giving rather than receiving.
But I marvel when I observe these men setting themselves up as instructors of youth who cannot see that they are applying the analogy of an art with hard and fast rules to a creative process
Like all readers, I want my limits to be drawn by my own sensibilities, not by my melanin count.
Once a day, especially in the early years of life and study, call yourselves to an account what new ideas, what new proposition or truth you have gained, what further confirmation of known truths, and what advances you have made in any part of knowledge.
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