"1984" is a failure.
Laurence Brander,
British literary
critic,
reviewing George Orwell's latest work
A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
Mark Twain
A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car.
Kenneth Tynan (1927-1980)
Any fool can write, but it takes wisdom to know how to erase.
Rabbi Israel Salanter
Anything that is written to please the author is worthless.
Blaise Pascal
Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)
Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.
A. J. Leibling
Go away. I'm all right.
Last words of H. G. Wells (1886-1946)
Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.
Augustine Birrel
Great Moments in Literature: In 1936, Ernest Hemingway, while trout fishing, caught a carp and decided not to write about it.
Guindon cartoon caption
I apologize for the length of this letter, but I didn't have time to make it shorter.
Mark Twain
I have read your book and much like it.
Moses Hadas (1900-1966)
I would rather be a coward than brave because people hurt you when you are brave.
E. M. Forster, as a child
I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.
Solomon Short
I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around.
Ross Smith
If I had read as many books as other men, I should have been as ignorant as they are.
Thomas Hobbs
If you present me with a hardback edition of my work, I shall autograph it, "Arthur Clarke." If you present a paperback, I will sign it, "A.C.Squiggle."
Arthur C. Clarke, the convention years
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Lord Ronald said nothing; he flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.
Stephen Leacock
Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.
John Ciardi (1916-1986)
Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
My tears stuck in their little ducts, refusing to be jerked.
Peter Stack, in a movie review
No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American
No statue has ever been put up to a critic.
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Of course truth is stranger than fiction; after all, good fiction must make sense.
Samuel Clemens
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
A. A. Milne
Some people say that I must be a horrible person, but that's not true. I have the heart of a small boy --- in a jar on my desk.
Stephen King, 3/8/90
Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it.
Moses Hadas, in a letter
The covers of this book are too far apart.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?)
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.
Mark Twain
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath.
Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart
The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)
There are two kinds of books: those that no one reads and those that no one ought to read.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)
There is nothing more obnoxious than someone else's good luck.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
There is so much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
There was a young lady of Crewe,
Whose limericks stopped
at line two.
This book fills a much-needed gap.
Moses Hadas, in a review
Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" on a ukelele.
Ben Bagdikian
Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.
Erasmus
When writers refer to themselves as "we" and to the reader as "you," it's two against one.
Judith Rascoe
When you take stuff from one writer, it's plagiarism; but when you take it from many writers, it's research.
Wilson Mizner
Wouldn't it be great if 4,000 people showed up at a Shakespeare convention? Now _that_ would be nice.
Patrick Stewart
You see things and say 'Why?'; but I dream things that never were and I say 'Why not?'
G. B. Shaw
Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)