Robert Bly Quotes

The opening lines of a book are so important. You really need to somehow charm your reader. If you can't get her attention in the first pages, you may have lost her. There has to be an ambience.

I'm never sure who I'm writing for, or who's reading me, but I definitely see myself in conspiracy with my readers.

How many times have you opened a book, read the first few sentences and made a snap decision about whether to buy it? When it's your book that's coming under this casual-but-critical scrutiny, you want the reader to be instantly hooked. The way to accomplish this is to create compelling opening sentences.

The connection that I have with my readers makes me very happy, and gives meaning to the strange profession of writing

A book brings its own history to the reader.

I think readers are just looking for things that maybe they recognize or can relate to in the books.

Best to say that once a poem is finished I trust it to make its way, and I trust readers will find their way to it and through it, if the thing has got itself rightly expressed.

If I can be more efficient, I'm actually being more respectful to the reader, which then implies a greater intimacy with the reader.

The main thing about the novel that is totally fascinating: It's not possessed by the writer; it's possessed by the reader.

The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.

The job of the first eight pages is not to have the reader want to throw the book at the wall, during the first eight pages.

I love meeting my readers - so the more I can talk to at one event the better!

But there's one thing I'm sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.

The world is dark, and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story.

Flow is something the reader experiences, not the writer.

You need that pride in yourself, as well as a sense, when you are sitting on Page 297 of a book, that the book is going to be read, that somebody is going to care. You can't ever be sure about that, but you need the sense that it's important, that it's not typing; it's writing.

In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen, really seen.

A book is completed only when it is finished by a reader.

What's great is when you're working with somebody with whom you have a connection, it's exciting because there's a shorthand and you trust each other and you have a good time together on the set and so you can go a little farther than you might normally because you're with somebody that you trust.

Those authors who would find many readers, must endeavour to please while they instruct.

In a film, if you can capture what's going on underneath, you can begin to make a connection between the character and the people watching it.

It's not necessarily what a family is typically supposed to look like. But it is what it is. It's about a connection and bond that everyone can identify with.

It's just so hard when you have a connection with someone and they just leave and you don't know if you'll ever see them again.

I think connection makes me vulnerable. Commitment makes me vulnerable, really.

He often wondered whether it were possible to be more possessed by desire for any other woman. The fact was that they functioned well together, and they had a connection as addictive as heroin.