Fiction Worth Reading For Entertainment

Fiction Worth Reading For Entertainment

Fiction Worth Reading For Entertainment “No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, or its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature.”–Edgar Rice Burroughs

Bonkers When We Read A Novel

Bonkers When We Read A Novel

Bonkers When We Read A Novel “While we read a novel, we are insane—bonkers. We believe in the existence of people who aren’t there, we hear their voices… Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed.”–Ursula K. Le Guin

Infinitely Stranger Is Life Than Fiction

Infinitely Stranger Is Life Than Fiction

Infinitely Stranger Is Life Than Fiction “Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through…

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Escape Is Not A Bad Thing To Be Scorned

Escape Is Not A Bad Thing To Be Scorned

Escape Is Not A Bad Thing To Be Scorned “I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which ‘Escape’ is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and…

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Trot Behind Your Character

Trot Behind Your Character

Trot Behind Your Character “It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.”–William Faulkner

Footprints Of Your Characters In The Snow

Footprints Of Your Characters In The Snow

Footprints Of Your Characters In The Snow “Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact rather than before. It cannot precede action. It is the chart that remains when an action is through. That is all Plot ever should be. It is human desire let run, running, and reaching a goal. It cannot be mechanical. It can only be…

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Chemistry Department Short Stories

Chemistry Department Short Stories

Chemistry Department Short Stories “I think I succeeded as a writer because I did not come out of an English department. I used to write in the chemistry department. And I wrote some good stuff. If I had been in the English department, the prof would have looked at my short stories, congratulated me on my talent, and then showed me how Joyce or Hemingway handled the same elements of the short story. The prof would have placed me in…

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