To reread a book is to read a different book. The reader is different. The meaning is different.

So who is cruel? You, cruel reader, you are.

As thoroughly as mankind has killed God, the reader has despatched the author.

The characters act for reasons that they can’t control and, as readers, we have to believe in their motivations, their sense of choice and in the reality of their suffering, even though, deep down, we know it’s all just puppetry on the part of the writer.

Those who perpetrate stories must act cruelly.

Who can say they saw a whole play or read a whole book? Each has their own experience, their own play, their own book