To be willing to sort of die in order to move the reader, somehow. Even now I'm scared about how sappy this'll look in print, saying this.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think the key is to give the reader characters they not only care about, but identify with, and to never take away all hope.
I always individuate myself from other writers who say they would die if they couldn't write. For me, I'd die if I couldn't read.
The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring.
To make the reader afraid, I had to be afraid.
There is a certain aesthetic pleasure in trying to imagine the unimaginable and failing, if you are a reader.
I never think of the reader. I am curious about things; I need to find out, so off I go.
That's why editors and publishers will never be obsolete: a reader wants someone with taste and authority to point them in the direction of the good stuff, and to keep the awful stuff away from their door.
One way an author dies a little each day is when his books go out of print.
I try not to picture a reader when I'm writing. It's like trying to make a great table but not picturing anybody sitting at it.
If your agent or publisher is jumping up and down at the thought of your novel, it's because they're picturing the movie poster on the side of the bus.