Elizabeth Bowen Mind Quotations

Each piece of dialogue MUST be "something happening". . .The "amusing" for its OWN sake should above all be censored. . .The functional use of dialogue for the plot must be the first thing in the writer's mind. Where functional usefulness cannot be established, dialogue must be left out.

the process of reading is reciprocal; the book is no more than a formula, to be furnished out with images out of the reader's mind.