When we read about reading, we get to share an experience that is usually kept private. Incisive descriptions of reading help us to understand what is going on when our eyes move across words on the page. Joanna Scott Read Quote
As entertainment, fiction may offer momentary relief from the stresses of reality. Joanna Scott Read Quote
Complex literary works demand an effort from the reader that is becoming harder to justify, given the sink-or-swim pressures to make profitable products for a global marketplace. Joanna Scott Read Quote
My first two books, I was very close to my main character, stuck inside their head. And then with ‘Arrogance,’ I broke into many different voices. I introduce many different characters, and that helped me to develop a confidence to move between different characters, between different voices. Joanna Scott Read Quote
There’s a point I set for myself, and it’s an arbitrary point, when I think no matter happens, I’m going to finish that book. And that’s when I get to page 100. I have to see it out. Joanna Scott Read Quote
The novelist in me is probably hiding behind all the stories I write, looking for ways to connect them and continue the conversation with readers. Maybe I’m writing one long narrative, and each book, however different from the last, is just a chapter. Joanna Scott Read Quote
Jim Longenbach, poet, critic, and my husband, is always passing along life-changing books for me to read. Joanna Scott Read Quote
The best liars lie with their eyes rather than with their words. This might put writers at a disadvantage. Joanna Scott Read Quote
Whether art is defined as a representation of or response to reality, it demands an intense engagement with things we haven’t managed to understand fully. Joanna Scott Read Quote
When we really start searching for the truth in stories, we can find it everywhere, not just in sincere confessions but in the deliberate lies and imagined possibilities, the magic and fantasy, and all the other unreal elements that go into the concoction of identity. Joanna Scott Read Quote
