Infectious fascination

From: If You Want to Write

Tolstoy, one of the most interesting men who ever lived, explains that mystery of “interestingness” and how it passes from writer to reader. It is an infection. And it is immediate. The writer has a feeling and utters it from his true self. The reader reads it and is immediately infected. He has exactly the same feeling. This is the whole secret of enchantment, fascination.

--Brenda Euland