Benjamin Jowett Quotes

I'm a writer. I never expected to be recognised on the street. I never expected to get that kind of coverage, good or bad. I never expected to sell as many books as I have.

You can't be admitted to the ranks of writers of importance unless you have sales.

I didn't like being a name attached to a book.

I haven't been the kind of writer about whom book-length academic studies have been written.

I would love to be in public one day and see someone reading my book. I think that would be so ridiculously cool.

When I read something saying I've not done anything as good as 'Catch-22' I'm tempted to reply, 'Who has?'

Authors should be honored only for their works.

Let authors write for glory and reward. The truth is well paid when she is sung and heard.

A remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good in spite of all the people who say he is very good.

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.

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

In the New Yorker library, I have long been shelved between Nadine Gordimer and Brendan Gill; an eerie little space nestled between high seriousness of purpose and legendary lightness of touch.

I was just delighted to be a legitimate, for-real published author.

After a while, when the writer is mature, it doesn't really matter - not because of finances but because of reputation. It doesn't really matter how many awards you get.

My position as the best-selling author at E! is secure - unless Salman Rushdie develops a show with them.

When I pick up a book that's, you know, wreathed in laurels, I expect a lot, and that doesn't give the book its best chance to shine.

It's a strange failure of the literary world that Updike never quite received his due. Despite winning two Pulitzers and two National Book Awards and countless other awards and honours, he was denied the Nobel.

you want to write a book for so many reasons ... The main reason ... is because it will make you well-known and beloved and popular and successful and famous and respected. You also write ... to make money, but that motivation is not first on the list.

I actually own a copy of my own book; that's how dedicated I am as an author.

A pin has as much head as some authors and a good deal more point.

I had written a book. For various reasons, the publishing industry had decided that my book was going to be 'important.' The novel had taken me 12-and-a-half years to write, and after being with the book for so long, I had no real perspective on the merits or demerits of what I had written. I hoped it was good, but feared that it wasn't.

People aren't quite sure what it means when a book is a Booker Prize winner. They're not quite sure what is being recommended, what literary values it stands for, because every year it stands for something different.

I believe if you write a great book, the chances are it'll get a great reception.

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

Heinlein never had a best-seller. Even, I think, with Stranger in a Strange Land, I don't think it was actually on the New York Times best seller list.