“Fast reading of a great novel will get us the plot. It will get us names, a shadowy idea of characters, a sketch of settings. It will not get us subtleties, small differentiations, depth of emotion and observation, multilayered human experience, the appreciation of simile and metaphor, any sense of context, any comparison with other novels, other writers. Fast reading will not get us cadence and complexities of style and language. It will not get us anything that enters not just the conscious mind but the unconscious. It will not allow the book to burrow down into our memory and become part of ourselves, the accumulation of knowledge and wisdom and vicarious experience which helps to form us as complete human beings. It will not develop our awareness or add to the sum of our knowledge and intelligence. Read parts of a newspaper quickly or an encyclopaedia entry, or a fast-food thriller, but do not insult yourself or a book which has been created with its author's painstakingly acquired skill and effort, by seeing how fast you can dispose of it.”
“Fast reading of a great novel will get us the plot. It will get us names, a shadowy idea of characters, a sketch of settings. It will not get us subtleties, small differentiations, depth of emotion and observation, multilayered human experience, the appreciation of simile and metaphor, any sense of context, any comparison with other novels, other writers. Fast reading will not get us cadence and complexities of style and language. It will not get us anything that enters not just the conscious mind but the unconscious. It will not allow the book to burrow down into our memory and become part of ourselves, the accumulation of knowledge and wisdom and vicarious experience which helps to form us as complete human beings. It will not develop our awareness or add to the sum of our knowledge and intelligence. Read parts of a newspaper quickly or an encyclopaedia entry, or a fast-food thriller, but do not insult yourself or a book which has been created with its author's painstakingly acquired skill and effort, by seeing how fast you can dispose of it.”
Susan Hill
“It's easy to write a short story and frighten people for five pages, but to work at length, when you do it as in 'The Turn Of The Screw' or 'A Christmas Carol,' it's different; you have to build it and build it.”
Susan Hill“I walked up the stairs and hesitated at the open door.”
Susan Hill, The Small Hand“It is okay to climb as long as you are not afraid, because being afraid is what made you fall”
Susan Hill, I'm the King of the Castle“I have sat here at my desk, day after day, night after night, a blank sheet of paper before me, unable to lift my pen, trembling and weeping too.”
Susan Hill, The Woman in Black“Your world may think what it chooses...but really, opinion and gossip count for nothing at all against truth...”
Susan Hill, Mrs de Winter“We are not punished for our sins, we are punished by them. We can't live with guilt for the whole of our lives..”
Susan Hill, Mrs de Winter“The moment had gone. I carried my secrets still with me, and they were hard, heavy, bitter things.”
Susan Hill, Mrs de Winter“I was frightened of myself, I seemed to have no control over my thoughts and feelings, it was like a sort of madness...”
Susan Hill, Mrs de WinterAll in One Creative & Marketing Platform to tell stories at scale
