The contract between the author and the reader is a game. And the game .. . is one of the greatest invetions of Western civilization: the game of telling stories, inventing characters, and creating the imaginary paradise of the individual, from whence no one can be expelled because, in a novel, no one owns the truth and everyone has the right to be heard and understood. Carlos Fuentes
About This Quote

The contract between the author and the reader is a game. And the game . . .

is one of the greatest invetions of Western civilization: the game of telling stories, inventing characters, and creating the imaginary paradise of the individual, from whence no one can be expelled because, in a novel, no one owns the truth and everyone has the right to be heard and understood. In this quote, Dostoyevsky describes how each novel should have a different tone from each other. The tone or mood should be based on the author.

It is crucial that readers have an expectation for a certain tone when they start a novel. There are many famous novels out there, but not all novels have a consistent tone.

Source: Myself With Others: Selected Essays

Some Similar Quotes
  1. I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best. - Marilyn Monroe
  2. When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable. - Jess C. Scott
  3. When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always. - Mahatma Gandhi
  4. Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having... - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  5. The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then... - Thomas Merton
More Quotes By Carlos Fuentes
  1. The contract between the author and the reader is a game. And the game .. . is one of the greatest invetions of Western civilization: the game of telling stories, inventing characters, and creating the imaginary paradise of the individual, from whence no one can...
  2. Cristo quería a los justos, habitaba las buenas conciencias, pertenecía a los hombres de bien, a la gente decente, a las buenas reputaciones. ¡Que cargara el diablo con los humildes, con los pecadores, con los abandonados, con los rebeldes, con los miserables, con los que...
  3. I dalje verujem da Sunce izlazi svakoga dana i da svako novo Sunce najavljuje novi dan;dan koji je juče bio budućnost. I dalje verujem da će danaÅ¡nji dan, u trenutku zatvaranja jedne stranice vremena, obećati sutra — ranije nepredvidivo, kasnije neponovljivo
  4. One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death.
  5. Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre.
Related Topics