Tony Hillerman Quotes

I simply write with an intelligent reader in mind. I don't think about how old they are.

I made a decision to write for my readers, not to try to find more readers for my writing.

Whenever I write, I'm always thinking of the reader.

I think that if you are a serious writer, you are almost obligated to provide the intelligent average reader with something that they can relate to and care about. If you are writing only for a tiny elite, then that surely should sound alarm bells.

I think you become a writer when you stop writing for yourself or your teachers and start thinking about readers.

Like 'Metro' and 'Motor,' 'Troublemaker' is written in first person. The only narration that happens is Barney speaking to the reader/thinking in her head. First person was a big challenge in the graphic novel because we want both men and women of all ages to enjoy 'Troublemaker.'

It's so easy, as a writer, to get stuck in your own head, to live in the little worlds you create. To forget that there are people out there reading your work, people who may be deeply affected by what you do, that you are writing not just for yourself, but for them.

To know whom to write for is to know how to write.

If you write for the critics, only the critics will read you.

It was always clear to me that I would have to earn my readers, some I would have to find, some to create.

In the big picture I write for an audience of people I've never met. By the final draft I'm looking for anything in the prose that's prospectively boring to strangers.

I've always been really involved in figuring out who my audience is and how to reach them.

I never wrote my books especially for children.

You've got to keep your finger on the pulse of what your audience is thinking, and know what they'll accept from you.

I'm very aware of the presence of a reader, and that probably is a reaction against a lot of poems that I do read which seem oblivious to my presence as a reader.

I'm getting a lot of mail from readers, and I'd say 90% seem to be from adults, which amazes me. But then again, I can only write what I imagine I'd like to read, and I'm an adult, so maybe it's not so surprising after all.

It's such a gift when you know who you're writing for and you know that that actor is capable of so much that you can relax a bit.

I don't want to write books that are intellectually staggering if nobody's going to read them.

There comes a time in every writer's life when it becomes necessary to recognize what people really care about.

I know what the audience is looking for and have the ability to deliver that content.

I'm a commercial director; I do some very very commercial stuff in the commercial world. My music videos are always analyzed. I need to think about what the audience is going to think.

One thing that probably is unique at Activision is that we really spend a lot of time up front with our audiences, and in big quantities and with a very thoughtful process, to really try and draw out from them what it is that they would like to play. So we have a pretty good sense going in what the expectation of the audience is.

I don't want to hear at all what the artist thinks about his art. And I'm not writing for the artist. I'm writing for the reader, and I want to tell the reader what I think.

I always take the audience into account.

He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line.