3 Quick Quotes from Writers
The act of reading literature invites readers to participate in the experience aesthetically, not merely intellectually. Our desires as human beings are shaped by both knowledge and experience. And to read a work of literature is to have a kind of experience and to gain knowledge.
(Karen Swallow Prior, On Reading Well)
"Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I'm always highly irritated by people who say that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it's very shocking to the system. If a novelist is not sustained by a hope of money, then he must be sustained by a hope of salvation, or he simply won't survive the ordeal."
(Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners)
“Writing not only gives form and meaning to our sometimes disorderly existence but gives the author the chance for self-disclosure and communion with others, while giving readers a privileged share in another’s inner life that, perhaps imperceptibly, questions and illuminates their own."
(Ron Hansen, A Stay Against Confusion)
