A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- A book's meaning comes equally from the writer and reader.
- In plain terms
- Readers finish the book and teach the writer.
- What can you take from it?
- Reading is a collaborative act between author and audience.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How much is in the text?
- Who makes the meaning?
Another view
Authors may not always learn from readers directly.
More from P. L. Travers
It is clear from Gurdjieff's writings that hypnotism, mesmerism and various arcane methods of expanding consciousness must have played a large part in the stud…
Permalink to quote #1 A great friend of mine at the beginning of our friendship (he was himself a poet) said to me very defiantly, 'I have to tell you that I loathe children's books…
Permalink to quote #3 The silky hush of intimate things, fragrant with my fragrance, steal softly down, so loth to rob me of my last dear concealment.
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
Literature is not exhaustible, for the sufficient and simple reason that a single book is not. A book is not an isolated entity: it is a narration, an axis of …
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Luis Borges quote #100 There are certain common privileges of a writer, the benefit whereof, I hope, there will be no reason to doubt; particularly, that where I am not understood, i…
Jonathan SwiftJonathan Swift quote #2 The most superficial fact regarding the Discourses, the fact that the number of its chapters equals the number of books of Livy's History, compelled us to star…
Leo StraussLeo Strauss quote #6