Robert G. Ingersoll Quotes

I don't think you can ever assess your work. I don't think Turgenev could assess his any more than I can assess mine, and his didn't have a social impact as much as great literary impact.

You're not going to make Hemingway better by adding animations.

Literature, of course, is not a contest.

Authors should be honored only for their works.

I have an editor in my head, that's why I can't read Harry Potter, because Rowling is such a lousy writer.

A good novel is a good novel, pointe finale. And I think what I'm writing is exactly that.

What does Sinclair know about anything? He's just a writer.

Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

It's absolutely philistine not to recognize what a great book 'An American Dream' is. Norman Mailer is his own worst enemy, and if you don't catch him in a defensive position, he'll admit it. I'd really like to help that man.

The conventional wisdom with David Mamet is, you do not change a word. And that agrees with me. If you want to change any of David's words, it's like wanting to change the iambic pentameter in Shakespeare - you should do something else.

Writers are notoriously unable to know about themselves. Faulkner thought 'The Fable' was his best novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald liked 'Tender Is the Night,' an experimental novel.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

I demand that my books be judged with utmost severity, by knowledgeable people who know the rules of grammar and of logic, and who will seek beneath the footsteps of my commas the lice of my thought in the head of my style.

My publisher, who was so good as a taster and editor, when she became a writer, lo and behold, it was all this feminine tosh.

I am not Shakespeare or Hemingway, but I have written stories on tennis that were brilliant.

A lot of writers dwell on their relationships with their mothers, but only a few are worth reading.

I don't teach literature from my perspective as 'Joyce Carol Oates.' I try to teach fiction from the perspective of each writer. If I'm teaching a story by Hemingway, my endeavor is to present the story that Hemingway wrote in its fullest realization.

Anyone aspiring to literary greatness should read 'New Grub Street' and weep.

Size has nothing to do with literature. All legs are long enough to touch the ground, and all books are big enough to fill their covers.

Any good writer is going to be well-received and is going to not be well-received; that's how you know you're a great writer.

Poetry is a pure meritocracy. There's no room for ambiguity: either a poem moves you and opens up new vistas in life, or it doesn't. It's completely objective, and the best always rise to the top.

You know, looking at it objectively, I've written one or two good books.

I figure anytime you put an adjective before 'writer,' it's a way of dismissing the writer.

The author may not interpret. But he must tell why and how he wrote his book.

The book may be garbage, but if it weighs in at a kilo or more, I stand before its author in awe.