To Write With Taste, In The Highest Sense, Is To Write With The Assumption That One Out Of A Hundred People Who Read One's Work May Be Dying, Or Have Some Loved One Dying

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To write with taste, in the highest sense, is to write with the assumption
that one out of a hundred people who read one's work may be dying, or have
some loved one dying; to write so that no one commits suicide, no one
despairs; to write, as Shakespeare wrote, so that people understand,
sympathize, see the universality of pain, and feel strengthened, if not
directly encouraged to live on.
-- John Gardner, "The Art of Fiction"

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