To my way of thinking and working, the greatest service a piece of fiction can do any reader is to leave him with a higher ideal of life than he had when he began. If in one small degree it shows him where he can be...gentler, saner, cleaner, kindlier...it is a wonder-working book. If it opens his eyes to one beauty in nature he never saw for himself and leads him one step toward the God of the Universe, it is a beneficial book.
Gene Stratton-PorterHow a big majority of book critics and authors have come to believe and to teach that no book is true to life unless it is true to the worst in life, God knows.
Gene Stratton-PorterSometimes it seems to me that the more we get hurt in this world the decenter it makes us.
Gene Stratton-Porter