DIANE ARIEFF ENGLISH SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

"…A reader [is like] an amateur musician…who sits at the piano, has a piece of music, which is the work, made by somebody they don't know… and they have to use their skills to play this piece of music. The greater the skill, the greater the gift that you give the artist and that the artist gives you... when you practice reading, and you work at a text, it can only give you what you put into it. It's an old moral, but it's completely true."    

      

          ~ Zadie Smith, novelist and essayist