To Write With Taste, In The Highest Sense, Is To Write With The Assumption That One Out Of A Hundred People Who Read One's Work May Be Dying, Or Have Some Loved One Dying

HomeFortune CookiesMiscellaneous Collections

To write with taste, in the highest sense, is to write with the assumption
that one out of a hundred people who read one's work may be dying, or have
some loved one dying; to write so that no one commits suicide, no one
despairs; to write, as Shakespeare wrote, so that people understand,
sympathize, see the universality of pain, and feel strengthened, if not
directly encouraged to live on.
-- John Gardner, "The Art of Fiction"

Related: