Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite read more

Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more than his soul.

Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.

Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.

Unlike other people, our reviewers are powerful because they believe in nothing.

Unlike other people, our reviewers are powerful because they believe in nothing.

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.

A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.

A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.

I quote others only in order the better to express myself. •Michel De Montaigne Certain brief sentences read more

I quote others only in order the better to express myself. •Michel De Montaigne Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said. •Jean Rostand I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, read more

In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, and in Australia you have to explain what a writer is.

You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writes in the read more

You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writes in the world.

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.