[…] to read an author depends on reading from him what he created, and even more, what has grown from this with the effort of centuries. […] Authors’ words do not have only this charm, this power and this courage which we try or can give them, but they also have the charm and power of the living word, so not everybody is able to read, as the reader should cooperate, and reading, the greater the thing is, the more individual it is.
[C. Norwid, On Juliusz Słowacki in six public sittings]