I’m a big, big reader of pretty much everything that Chuck Colson has written. And I consulted with him when I was making some decisions about running for the Senate in the first place.
A writer without a reader doesn’t exist.
When I write a poem, I do not have to worry about using a higher Urdu vocabulary because I know the reader knows Urdu well.
A passenger on a road journey is in the hands of a driver; a reader embarking on a book is in the hands of a narrator.
I want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning until the end.
We really set out in all our books to say something. Every one is an effort to bring the reader over and show them our theory as to why what we’re talking about needs to be talked about.
‘Dreams From My Father’ reveals more about Obama than is usually known about political leaders until after they’re dead. Perhaps more than it intends, it shows his mind working, in real time, sentence by sentence, in what feels like a private audience with the reader.
I try not to picture a reader when I’m writing. It’s like trying to make a great table but not picturing anybody sitting at it.
But it seemed to me that as soon as you have computer storage you could put every point you wanted in – make the ones that are less relevant to your central topic, further away or allow the central topic to move as the reader proceeded.
