a 'text' is generated where the reader is one who rationally conceives of himself as writing a 'text' comparable in stature, in degree of demand, to that which he is reading. To read essentially is to entertain with the writer's text a relationship at once recreative and ritual. It is a supremely active, collaborative yet also agonistic affinity whose logical, if not actual, fulfillment is an 'answering text'.
George Steiner, «Text and context», en On difficulty and other essays
