Source: My Side of the Mountain
As quoted in The New York Times (2 July 1978)
“A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”
Source: Works of Samuel Johnson
Source: An Erotic Beyond: Sade
“When a long book succeeds, the writer and reader are not just having an affair; they are married.”
Source: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
“That book is good in vain, which the reader throws away.”
The Life of Dryden
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
Context: It is not by comparing line with line, that the merit of great works is to be estimated, but by their general effects and ultimate result. It is easy to note a weak line, and write one more vigorous in its place; to find a happiness of expression in the original, and transplant it by force into the version: but what is given to the parts may be subducted from the whole, and the reader may be weary, though the critick may commend. Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good in vain, which the reader throws away. He only is the master, who keeps the mind in pleasing captivity; whose pages are perused with eagerness, and in hope of new pleasure are perused again; and whose conclusion is perceived with an eye of sorrow, such as the traveller casts upon departing day.
Source: At Large and at Small: Familiar Essays
