As one tends to the graves of the dead, so I tend the books. I clean them, do minor repairs, keep them in good order. And every day I open a volume or two, read a few lines or pages, allow the voices of the forgotten dead to resonate inside my head. Do they sense it, these dead writers, when their books are read? Does a pinprick of light appear in their darkness? Is their soul stirred by the feather touch of another mind reading theirs? I do hope so, for it must be very lonely being dead.
Diane SetterfieldWhat better place to kill time than a library? And for me, what better way to get to know someone than through her choice and treatment of books?
Diane SetterfieldPrescription: 'Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. Take ten pages, twice a day, til end of course.
Diane SetterfieldPoliteness. Being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else.
Diane SetterfieldTags: politeness failure
When you read a manuscript that has been damaged by water, fire, light or just the passing of the years, your eye needs to study not just the shape of the letters but other marks of production. The speed of the pen. The pressure of the hand on the page. Breaks and releases in the flow. You must relax. Think of nothing. Until you wake into a dream where you are at once a pen flying of vellum and the vellum itself with the touch of ink tickling your surface. Then you can read it. The intention of the writer, his thoughts, his hesitations, his longings and his meaning. You can read as clearly as if you were the very candlelight illuminating the page as the pen speeds over it.
Diane SetterfieldTags: reading writing comprehension
My genius is not so frail a thing that it cowers from the dirty fingers of newspapernen.
Diane SetterfieldTags: intelligence genius media press
I don't pretend reality is the same for everyone.
Diane SetterfieldTags: reality perspective
It gave me a queer feeling. Yesterday or the day before, while I had been going about my business, quietly and in private, some unknown person ― some stranger ― had gone to the trouble of marking my name on this envelope.
Diane SetterfieldTags: letters correspondence
There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner.
Diane SetterfieldI read *old* novels. The reason is simple. I prefer proper endings.
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