To judge rightly of an author, we must transport ourselves to his time, and examine what were the wants of his contemporaries, and what were his means of supplying them. That which is easy at one time was difficult at another.
Authors Quotes
Oblivion, n. The state or condition in which the wicked cease from struggling and the dreary are at rest. Fame’s eternal dumping ground. Cold storage for high hopes. A place where ambitious authors meet their works without pride and their betters without envy. A dormitory without an alarm clock.
Every age has a language of its own; and the difference in the words is often far greater than in the thoughts. The main employment of authors, in their collective capacity, is to translate the thoughts of other ages into the language of their own.
I can have but little doubt that my writing has been, in the main, too hard for many I should have been pleased to communicate with; but I never designedly tried to puzzle people, as some of my critics have supposed. On the other hand, I never pretended to offer such literature as should be […]
All women, as authors, are feeble and tiresome. I wish they were forbidden to write, on pain of having their faces deeply scarified with an oyster shell.
One hates an author that’s all author.
When I read something saying I’ve not done anything as good as “Catch 22” I’m tempted to reply, “Who has?”
In some books I have done more careful planning than in others, but always the end was seen from the beginning, and in each case it was the end that I set out to reach. I mean, literally, the end of the story: not necessarily the scene, but the feeling of the end, the mood […]
Read for ideas, not authors.
If you liked a book, don’t meet the author.
