“To serve the people,
one must write for the ideal reader. Only for the ideal reader.
And who or what is that ideal reader? God. One must imagine,
One must deeply imagine”

—  Denise Levertov

Conversation in Moscow

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Denise Levertov photo
Denise Levertov 49
Poet 1923–1997

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Denise Levertov photo

“To serve the people,
one must write for the ideal reader. Only for the ideal reader.
And who or what is that ideal reader? God. One must imagine,
One must deeply imagine
:: that great Attention
Only so,
In lonely dialog,
can one reach the people.”

Denise Levertov (1923–1997) Poet

Conversation in Moscow

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“The ideal "Life of Jesus" [biography] at the close of the nineteenth century is the "Life" which Heinrich Julius Holtzmann did not write — but which can be pieced together from his commentary on the synoptic gospels and his new testament theology. It is ideal because, for one thing, it is unwritten, and arises only in the idea of the reader by the aid of his own imagination, and, for another, because it is traced only in the most general outline.”

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Source: The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906), p. 296

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“[On his process for writing novels:] I can't imagine what the first sentence is, I can't imagine where I want the reader to enter the story, if I don't know where the reader is going to leave the story. So once I know what the last thing the reader hears is, I can work my way backward, like following a roadmap in reverse.”

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Letters and essays
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