Dorothy L. Sayers Quotes

It isn't enough for a book to be transporting or entertaining; it must also come from a place of knowledge and an understanding of aesthetics. Even where a longlisted book wears its craftsmanship lightly, the power of the writing shines through.

Books are for the most part willfully and hastily written, as parts of a system to supply a want real or imagined.

The smaller the ball used in the sport, the better the book.

There are only two kinds of books -- good books and the others. The good are winnowed from the bad through the democracy of time.

If a writer knows what he or she is doing, I'll go along for the ride. If he or she doesn't... well, I'm in my fifties now, and there are a lot of books out there. I don't have time to waste with the poorly written ones.

As time has gone on and we're at the end of the 20th century and major publishing is a big business, yes, of course we're going to get a lot of plain, mediocre trash. There are a lot of writers who get huge advances for books that don't go anywhere and they have to burn them somewhere or throw them away. I always think about all the poor trees that have been sacrificed.

I can speak of my own criterion for judging whether or not a book is good or bad. I ask of it a single question, From how deep and true an impulse did it spring? Was it written merely to shock? Only to make money? Or was it written to create something more perfect and more lasting than the life experience from which it came?

A man can write one book that can be great, but this doesn't make him a great writer-just the writer of a great book. . . I think a writer has to extend very widely, as well as plunge very deep, to be a great novelist.

The seeds of genius are in many blogs, but bloggers lack the interest in or understanding of the difference between blogging and fully-formed literary efforts.

It is true that the discerning intellect of the world is always much in advance of the creative, so that there are competent judges of the best book, and few writers of the best books.

Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.

Ideally, we should like to define a good book as one which 'permits, invites, or compels' good reading

It's really hard to get a book published, even a good book, but the better the book is the better chance it has of eventually catching someone's attention.

Philip Roth is a good writer, but I wouldn't want to shake hands with him.

What should a good children’s book be like? If you ask me, I can tell you after thinking long and hard: It must be good.

Great books write themselves, only bad books have to be written.

Good books are irrefutable, and bad books refute themselves.

Often with good sentiments we produce bad literature.

All the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

There is an enormous redundancy in every well-written book. With a well-written book I only read the right-hand page and allow my mind to work on the left-hand page. With a poorly written book I read every word.

I never met an author who admitted that people did not buy his book because it was dull.

So books are real to me, too; they link me not just with other minds but with the vision of other minds, what those minds understand and see. I see their worlds as well as I see my own.

The test of real literature is that it will bear repetition. We read over the same pages again and again, and always with fresh delight.

An award does not change the quality of a book.

Nine-tenths of all existing books are nonsense.