Ben’s Reviews > A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life > Status Update

“(We might say that a first-time reader is able to intuit the many less-cared-for versions of a sentence behind the one the writer let stand.)”

“According to Donald Barthelme, ‘The writer is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do.’”

“…the part of the mind that reads a story is also the part that reads the world; it can deceive us, but it can also be trained to accuracy; it can fall into disuse and make us more susceptible to lazy, violent, materialistic forces, but it can also be urged back to life, transforming us into more active, curious, alert readers of reality.”