The Quotable Writer  Quotations About Writing and Publishing Excerpted from The Quotable Writer by William A. Gordon "William A. Gordon has created a Bartlett's of the literary life, culling and collecting roughly a thousand of the best things ever said or written by and about writers and writing. These are the kinds of quotes you'll want to enlarge and stick on your bulletin board or tape to the top of your computer monitor, to glance at for affirmation and encouragement when the blank page before you stubbornly stays blank." - From the foreword by David A. Fryxell, editorial director and nonfiction columnist, Writer's Digest  It is largely within your power to determine whether a publisher will buy your work and whether the public will buy it once it's released . .. Failures abound because hardly anybody treats getting published as if it were a rational, manageable activity-like practicing law or laying bricks-in which knowledge coupled with skill and application would suffice to ensure success. - JUDITH APPELBAUM and NANCY EVANS, How to Get Happily Published Publishers are always on the lookout for a good book. This is something to keep in mind no matter how discouraging the prospect of finding a publisher is, no matter how many rejection slips you get, and no matter how overwhelming the odds seem. - RICHARD BALKIN, A Writer's Guide to Book Publishing Once you've got a story to the point where you think it's worth submitting, you must submit it and submit it and submit it until someone somewhere breaks down and buys it. - LAWRENCE BLOCK, Telling Lies for Fun and Profit With ordinary talents and extraordinary perseverance all things are attainable. - THOMAS BUXTON, Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton edited by Charles Buxton Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. - THOMAS EDISON, inventor, quoted in The World's Best Thoughts on Success & Failure compiled by Eugene Raudsepp Literature is like any other trade; you will never sell anything unless you go to the right shop. - GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, British playwright, quoted in Peter's Quotations Bottom of Page No one knows what he can do till he tries. - PUBLILIUS SYRUS, Maxim 786 Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. - ROBERT F. KENNEDY, To Seek a Newer World To follow, without halt, one's aim: That's the secret of success. - ANNA PAVLOVA, Pavlova: A Biography Successful men usually snatch success from seeming failure. If they know there is such a word as defeat they will not admit it. They may be whipped, but they are not aware of it. That is why they succeed. - A. P. GOUTHEY, quoted in The World's Best Thoughts on Success & Failure Successful men and women . . . don't consider the odds. They just sneak up at night and cut their own holes in the fence. - WELLS ROOT, Writing the Script For every person who will say yes, there are twenty who will say no. For a positive response you must find the twenty-first person. - CHUCK REAVES, The Theory of 21 The only reward to be expected from the cultivation of literature is contempt if one fails and hatred if one succeeds. - VOLTAIRE, French philosopher, in a letter to Mlle. Quinault, 1763 There is only one success-to be able to spend your life in your own way. - CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, Where the Blues Begin Literary success of any enduring kind is made by refusing to do what publishers want, by refusing to write what the public want, by refusing to accept any popular standards, by refusing to write anything to order. - LAFCADIO HEARN (who's he?) Bottom of Page The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its shame. - OSCAR WILDE, The Picture of Dorian Gray How daring and how dangerous the innovators often seem in their own day! . . . Wait fifty years, and they do not seem so daring or dangerous, so godlike or so devilish. - ASHLEY THORNDIKE, The Outlook for Literature The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger. - W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM, Great Novelists and Their Novels One age's oddities and curiosities are often another's masterpieces. It may be that it requires a long absorptive time for a unique style to be understood and then admired, or an original thought to be comprehended and then appreciated. The resistance to such phenomena is great. Most people prefer the easy and familiar . . . Only the future reveres the original and daring style. - DORIS GRUMBACH, introduction to Writer's Choice edited by Linda Sternberg Katz and Bill Katz To be remembered after we are dead is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living. - WILLIAM HAZLITT, Characteristics, 1821-1822 You're there to be shot at, and that's part of it. - Attributed to NORMAN MAILER, novelist It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. - President THEODORE ROOSEVELT, quoted by President Richard Nixon in his resignation speech, August 8, 1974 A critic is a man who expects miracles. - JAMES GIBBONS HUNEKER, Iconoclasts Little old ladies of both sexes. - JOHN O'HARA, novelist, on critics, quoted in The New York Times Book Review, January 6, 1985 Bottom of Page Certainly America is not overrun by great literary critics. The way I feel about reviews-my career has really been made by them, because I have gotten mostly good reviews. I am always happy to get good reviews because I want people to buy my books. But by and large, with some exceptions, your good reviews are usually as stupid as your bad reviews. - FRAN LEBOWITZ, humorist, interview with William A. Gordon The best thing you can do about critics is never say a word. In the end you have the last say, and they know it. - Attributed to TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, playwright If you want a place in the sun, you've got to expect a few blisters. - Anonymous I cannot think of anybody who doesn't need an editor, even though some people claim they don't. - Attributed to TONI MORRISON, novelist and editor The manuscript you submit [should not] contain any flaws that you can identify-it is up to the writer to do the work, rather than counting on some stranger in Manhattan to do it for him. - RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON, novelist, quoted in Writer's Digest, August 1994 I've done as many as eighty drafts of one poem . . . I've found students shocked to learn that it can take me three years to finish a poem. - CAROLYN FORCHE, poet, quoted in The Writing Business: A Poet & Writers Handbook (Definition of a genius) A man who is ahead of his time, but behind in his rent. - Anonymous Bottom of Page Every man of genius sees the world at a different angle from his fellows. - HAVELOCK ELLIS, The Dance of Life True genius lies in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous and conflicting information. - Attributed to WINSTON CHURCHILL, British prime minister When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. - JONATHAN SWIFT, Thoughts on Various Subjects Is it not time that we scholars began to earn our keep in the world? Thanks to a gullible public, we have been honored, flattered, even paid for producing the largest number of inconsequential studies in the history of civilization. - HOWARD ZINN, The Politics of History The vast majority of the so-called research turned out in the modern university is essentially worthless. It does not result in any measurable benefit to anything or anybody . . . It is busywork on a vast, incomprehensible scale. - PAGE SMITH, Killing the Spirit: Higher Education in America God cannot alter the past, (but) historians can. - SAMUEL BUTLER, Prose Observations History is too serious to be left to the historians. - IAN MacLEOD, The Observer, July 16, 1961 Historical events occur twice-the first time as tragedy, the second as farce. - KARL MARX, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Bottom of Page There has been a swing away from the great literature of the twenties and thirties when writers were driven by social injustices of their times. - LEON URIS, novelist, essay in The Quest for Truth by Martha Boaz The country is crawling with angry young men-in sociology, in politics, in biology. But I am looking for the angry men in literature. I am waiting for a strong spiritual man who would bang his fist on the table and say, "Enough of this nonsense!" - ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, short story writer, quoted in The Atlantic Monthly, July 1970 People who are drawn to journalism are usually people who, because of their cynicism or emotional detachment or reserve or whatever, are incapable of becoming anything but witnesses to events. - NORA EPHRON, Wallflower at the Orgy To have integrity in the media business today means only to be "objective," which has become a code word for having no convictions. - SUSAN FALUDI, The Nation, May 27, 1996 Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it. - RUSSELL LYNES, former managing editor, Harper's, quoted in Quotations of Wit and Wisdom by John W. Gardner and Francesa Gardner Reese Let me tell you about our profession. We are the meanest, nastiest bunch of jealous, petty people who ever lived . . . You think I wouldn't sell my mother for My Lai? - SEYMOND HERSH, investigative journalist and author, quoted in Vanity Fair, November 1997 Writers are cannibals . . . It's a terrible thing to be the friend, the acquaintance, (or) the relative of a writer. - CYNTHIA OZICK, speaking an Authors Guild symposium, quoted in the Author's Guild Bulletin, Winter 1999 Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living. -GUSTAVE FLAUBERT, French novelist, quoted in The Crown Treasury of Relevant Quotations Bottom of Page Driven by dollar signs, many major publishers now reject most manuscripts that don't instantly emit the sweet smell of success. - MARK SOMMER, "Too Many Books, Too Few Serious Readers," Christian Science Monitor, March 21, 1994 Every time we have to publish a public affairs book, we cringe. People forget about the event it deals with. The attention span of the American public is fleeting. - ALBERTO VITALE, chairman and CEO of Random House, quoted in The New Yorker, October 6, 1997 We sell books, other people sell shoes. What's the difference? Publishing isn't the highest art. - MICHEL KORDA, editor-in-chief, Simon & Schuster, quoted in the New York Times Book Review, December 9, 1979 This may be a painful pill for would-be Faulkners and Austens to swallow, and my last desire to denigrate the miraculous processes by which raw inspiration is transmuted into literature. But I do have to declare in all candor that no one interested in being published in our time can afford to be so naïve as to believe a book will make it merely because it's good. - RICHARD CURTIS, How to Be Your Own Literary Agent Big corporations require big profits from big books, and the ones that tend to suffer are the offbeat, quirky, controversial or intellectually challenging ones. - VIRGINIA BARBER, agent, quoted in Publishers Weekly, March 30, 1998 In some companies editors have been told not to sign up anything that can't be counted on to hit at least 50,000 or some other arbitrary figure. Another command from on high is "buy only bestsellers." - PAUL NATHAN, "The Golden Age of Opportunity," Small Press, September/October 1997 New York publishing is self-destructing. They've forgotten what books are for. The only hope lies with the small presses that still care about ideas and authors, the craft of writing, and the quality of books as cherished objects. - An unidentified highly respected New York editor, quoted in the Christian Science Monitor, March 21, 1994 Bottom of Page The literary giants of tomorrow are probably being published by small presses today. - KARIN TAYLOR, executive director, The Small Press Center, quoted in The Writer, April 1994 Today, anybody with a desktop personal computer can be a book publisher. - RICHARD BYE, former president, Publishers Marketing Association, PMA Newsletter, June 1993 The self-publisher really has control of his or her destiny to a much larger degree than does a writer merely submitting a manuscript (to a publisher). - DAN POYNTER, author, The Self-Publishing Manual Ultimately, self-publishing is a high-stakes game. Books often fail, but successful writers can actually make more money from a self-published book than they could through a big publishing company. - JOHN TESSITORE, "Desktop Publishing Wave Brings Tide of New Authors to Bookstore Shelves," Christian Science Monitor, July 11, 1996 Are you the type of person who wants to be behind the wheel rather than go along for the ride? - TOM ROSS and MARILYN ROSS, The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Publishing is not difficult. In fact, it may be easier than dealing with a publisher. The job of the publishing manager is not to perform every task, but to see that everything gets done. - DAN POYNTER, The Self-Publishing Manual Before you make any editorial decisions, you should always ask yourself the question: "Who will buy the book, and why?" - JOHN KREMER, 1,001 Ways to Market Your Book Self-publishing will consume all the time, concentration and energy you've got. If you don't want to commit your soul to the project, forget it. - MARK ALVAREZ, Home-Office Computing, February 1992 Bottom of Page I'd say roughly the difference between a satirist and a humorist is that the satirist shoots to kill while the humorist brings his prey back alive. - PETER De VRIES, novelist, quoted in Counterpoint compiled and edited by Roy Newquist Satire requires a nimble mind, the ability to make leaps of the imagination. One must have a profound knowledge of a subject to satirize it, since it must be carried beyond its normal form and then distorted in order to show its various facets. - JOHN BAILEY, Intent on Laughter When a satirist uses uncompromisingly clear language to describe unpleasant facts and people, he intends to do more than make as statement. He intends to shock his readers. - GILBERT HIGHET, The Anatomy of Satire You know, someone once said that Dorothy Parker had wasted her life wisecracking. I really can't think of a better use of a life. - FRAN LEBOWITZ, humorist, quoted in New Times, July 10, 1978 Writers rarely become rich and famous because of the quality of their work. They become rich and famous because of the nature of their work. - GARRY PROVOST, Writer's Digest, March 1986 Bottom of Page Everybody can write; writers can't do anything else. - MIGNON McLAUGHLIN, The Neurotic's Notebook There is probably no other trade in which there is so little relationship between profits and actual value, or into which sheer chance so largely enters. - KATHLEEN O'BRIEN, English writer, quoted in Author! Author! edited by Richard Findlater The annual (financial) report of New York Review of Books . . . showed editorial expenses of $44,761 representing fees for contributors-and $102,000 for messengers. - MACK CARTER, Adweek, February 18, 1985 Bottom of Page Painstaking research proves that one of America's greatest authors may in fact have been readable. - National Lampoon headline, January 1984 The chief reason that so many of the great classics seem to speak directly to us is that the authors were consciously trying to reach or, or at least people with an astonishing resemblance to us. - MARTIN W. GROSS, former president, Rutgers College, speech reprinted in Writing in America edited by John Fischer and Robert B. Silvers Our American professors like their literature clear and cold are pure and very dead. - SINCLAIR LEWIS, novelist, quoted in Literature 1901-67 by Horst Frenz I don't want to be studied in English classes. I want to be read. - TIM O'BRIEN, novelist, New York Times Book Review, June 8, 1980     |
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