“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”
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About this quote
Great writing can make you feel personally known by a stranger on the page. When a book makes you wish you could call the author, it means the work reached a private, human place inside you. Take that feeling seriously: note the lines that did it and bring them into your real conversations. Who would you tell about those lines, and what would you want them to understand?
When to use it
- Late-night train after finishing a novel: "I wish I could call the author and tell them I got exactly what they meant."
- College lit seminar when debating a character's choice: "Doesn't anyone else want to ring up the person who wrote this and ask why they made them like that?"
- Sunday afternoon at home after a memoir: "I kept thinking, if only the writer were my neighbor—I’d call and ask how they survived that."
- Office lunch break after a short story: "This hit hard; I want to talk to the author like they were an old friend and ask where that scene came from."