A Quote by Sarah Josepha Hale

Readers soon tire of prefaces, and skip them, and so the labor of writing them is lost. — © Sarah Josepha Hale
Readers soon tire of prefaces, and skip them, and so the labor of writing them is lost.
I never read prefaces, and it is not much good writing things just for people to skip. I wonder other authors have never thought of this.
It is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all that he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his readers is sure to skip them.
Fingerprint readers require special hardware, and a lot of people find them creepy and don't want to use them. Smart cards and tokens can be lost or stolen.
I have a lot of teenage readers and readers in their early twenties. My writing style appeals to them. And if they look at my picture on the back of the book, they don't see someone who looks like their mother.
Now I can always be called 'Emmy winner Regina King.' I think that in this business, it must mean something. Every time someone has won an award, and they're announcing them or speaking about them, that prefaces their name.
When a tire blows, you simply accept that this is the here and now reality of your life. You've lost the tire, but that doesn't mean that you have to lose your peace and serenity. Now, serenely, begin to take the necessary steps in order the change the tire.
If beginnings terrify you, or if you just plain don't like writing them, or if they bore you, skip 'em.
I don't think it's the intent of baseball not to have black ballplayers, but we have to find a way to get these kids back. We lost them to football. We lost them to basketball. We lost them to golf. People don't see how cool and exciting this game is.
As far as the writing goes, I started telling stories as soon as I could talk, and started writing them down as soon as I could string words together.
I used to like cufflinks, but I got too lazy for them. I realized I don't need them for a polished tailoring look, so more times than not, I skip them.
A great writer creates a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out.
A great writer created a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out.
I do believe that characters in novels belong to their writers and their readers pretty equally. I've learned a lot of things about the characters I write from people who read about them. Readers expand them in ways I don't think of and take them to places I can't go.
Take the gesture, the action of writing. I have an almost obsessive relation to writing instruments. I often switch from one pen to another just for the pleasure of it. I try out new ones. I have far too many pens - I don't know what to do with all of them! And yet, as soon as I see a new one, I start craving it. I cannot keep myself from buying them.
I talk to my readers on social networking sites, but I never tell them what the book is about. Writing is lonely, so from time to time I talk to them on the Internet. It's like chatting at a bar without leaving your office. I talk with them about a lot of things other than my books.
Writing, for me, when I'm writing in the first-person, is like a form of acting. So as I'm writing, the character or self I'm writing about and my whole self - when I began the book - become entwined. It's soon hard to tell them apart. The voice I'm trying to explore directs my own perceptions and thoughts.
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