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Daily Inspiration Quote by Jerry B. Jenkins

"The theater of the mind is impossible to compete with, and I like the idea that with a few suggestions, each reader forms in his or her own mind what a character or a place looks like"

About this Quote

Jenkins is making a sly power play on behalf of the written word: fiction wins not by outspending Hollywood, but by outsourcing production to the reader. "Impossible to compete with" sounds like a concession to film and television’s spectacle, yet it’s really a declaration of dominance. The mind’s theater has an unlimited budget, perfect casting, and a special-effects department tuned precisely to a person’s private desires and fears. No screen can match that because no screen knows you that well.

The key phrase is "a few suggestions". Jenkins is describing a craft ethic: restraint as authority. Instead of over-describing, the novelist drops cues - a gesture, a texture, one telling detail - then lets the reader’s memory and imagination do the heavy lifting. That’s not just economical; it’s participatory. The reader becomes co-creator, which creates intimacy and buy-in. You don’t merely observe the story; you help build it, and people defend what they help make.

There’s also a quiet argument about why adaptations frustrate fans. When you’ve constructed a character’s face in your head for 300 pages, a casting choice can feel like an invasion, not an interpretation. Jenkins, a high-output popular novelist, is defending the old magic of prose in a crowded media ecosystem: minimal inputs, maximal personalization, and a kind of narrative privacy that no algorithmic feed can replicate.

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TopicWriting
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Jenkins, Jerry B. (2026, January 17). The theater of the mind is impossible to compete with, and I like the idea that with a few suggestions, each reader forms in his or her own mind what a character or a place looks like. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-theater-of-the-mind-is-impossible-to-compete-74919/

Chicago Style
Jenkins, Jerry B. "The theater of the mind is impossible to compete with, and I like the idea that with a few suggestions, each reader forms in his or her own mind what a character or a place looks like." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-theater-of-the-mind-is-impossible-to-compete-74919/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The theater of the mind is impossible to compete with, and I like the idea that with a few suggestions, each reader forms in his or her own mind what a character or a place looks like." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-theater-of-the-mind-is-impossible-to-compete-74919/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Jerry B. Jenkins

Jerry B. Jenkins (born September 23, 1949) is a Novelist from USA.

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