"Writing, when properly managed, is but a different name for conversation: As no one, who knows what he is about in good company, would venture to talk at all; - so no author, who understands the just boundaries of decorum and good breeding, would presume to think all: The truest respect which you can pay to the reader's understanding, is to halve this matter amicably, and leave him something to imagine, in his turn, as well as yourself." - Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy