“Ann Patchett about the lack of a fiction Pulitzer winner this year."Let me underscore the obvious here: Reading fiction is important. It is avital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes usmore empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brainsbeyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within theworld of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skillsthat are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.”

Lynne Marshall

Lynne Marshall - “Ann Patchett about the lack of a...” 1

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“Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.”

Ann Patchett
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“Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we've never met, living lives we couldn't possibly experience for ourselves, because the book puts us inside the character's skin.”

Ann Patchett
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“Fiction does something unique in that it takes us out of our heads and puts us into other people's heads. And I think reading, and experiencing fiction through reading, is something that gives us empathy. And that, I think, is vital. It takes us out of our lives. Without reading, you're stuck with one life. Reading gives you more than one life. It gives you an infinite number of lives, which I think is wonderful. Or at least, not infinite, but as many as there are books on the shelves.”

Neil Gaiman
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“Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.”

Simone Weil
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“I'd said to them that when we read fiction, we pour our own paricular store of emotions - say, the sense of loss we feel for those disappeared from our lives - into the characters set before us. We take the few words with which the writer sketches these characters, the thing he said, the pain she felt, where they were, and our own emotional stockpile magically creates people. As the human eye fleshes out the pixilated image. Fictional characters are highly sophiticated Rorschach blots, and we, along with their author, are their authors. When you read a fictional character, you too are creating her.”

Chandler Burr
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