#ok

A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read ‘The Lost Symbol’, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it. ↗

— The Economist

#literature #reading #novel

If you want to write a fantasy story with Norse gods, sentient robots, and telepathic dinosaurs, you can do just that. Want to throw in a vampire and a lesbian unicorn while you're at it? Go ahead. Nothing's off limits. But the endless possibility of the genre is a trap. It's easy to get distracted by the glittering props available to you and forget what you're supposed to be doing: telling a good story. Don't get me wrong, magic is cool. But a nervous mother singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark outside her house? That's a story. Handled properly, it's more dramatic than any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be. ↗

— Patrick Rothfuss

#inspirational #inspirational

Sometimes books feel like the only thing that keep her sane. Actually, she knows that they're the only reason she's still even vaguely okay right now. That's what she clings to: reading great books and seeing great films and, for as long as she's immersed in them, being able to forget, if only for a short time, about the reality of her life. ↗

— Steph Bowe

#books #contemporary #young-adult #life

Before you bombed my boy Osama I always thought an explosion was such a quick thing but now I know better. The flash is over very fast but the fire catches hold inside you and the noise never stops…I live in an inferno where you could shiver with cold Osama. This life is a deafening roar but listen. You could hear a pin drop. ↗

— Chris Cleave

#life

So it is that a writer writes many books. In each book, he intended several urgent and vivid points, many of which he sacrificed as the book's form hardened. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#readers-and-writers #reading #writing #writing-craft #writing-process

It's a reflex. Hear a bell, get food. See an undead, throw a knife. Same thing, really. ↗

— Ilona Andrews

#humor #food

Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love. ↗

— Craig Claiborne

#food #food

He has 'le coeur comme un artichaud'. Eddy fumbled for her high school French. 'A heart like an artichoke?' 'Oui. He has a leaf for everyone, but makes a meal for no one. ↗

— Poppy Z. Brite

#food #love #food

Anyone who thinks they're too grown up or too sophisticated to eat caramel corn, is not invited to my house for dinner ↗

— Ruth Reichl

#food #gourmet #humor #food

Not matter what your sacred or religious book is, it's not how well you know the book, it's how well you're in alignment with the author. ↗

— Steve Maraboli

#author #book #happiness #inspirational #life