The publishers dictate ideas for novels to the writers, supplying them with titles and, in some instances, writing the books themselves.
Both Mao and his first successor, Deng Xiaoping, were shrewd and powerful men who could dictate ideas and then either force or manipulate others into obedience.
As the great historian of Stalinism Robert Conquest puts it, the human tragedies of Communism and Fascism stemmed "not so much from problems as from solutions, not from forces outside human control but from ideas, and actions dictated by ideas".
But one's impression had been that his generation of British Latin Americanists, who dictated good ideas for governance from comfortable homes in England, had all retired.
Because of the universality of its application, however, the idea was also linked with the theoretical notion that it was the law common to all peoples and was dictated by nature an idea that the Romans took from Greek philosophy.
Was somebody dictating name ideas when a mouse ran across the desk?
A prolific author of books, pamphlets, and articles in many journals, he was still dictating his ideas and arguments 48 hours before his death.
That is one definition of what it means to be a composer: the instruments do not dictate the ideas, the medium is not the message.
The plan was for Michael to dictate his ideas on a regular basis; I would take notes and write them up for Michael to edit.
One of his former leader writers told me how, when dictating his ideas for an editorial, he was so wound up that he occasionally broke into tears.
