Commercialization of Literature Quotes

The vast majority of fiction is written to markets and to this damnable business we have nowadays of categorizing everything.

There are hardly half a dozen writers in England today who have not sold out to the enemy. Even when their good work has been a success, Mammon grips them and whispers: More money for more work.

Literature nowadays is a trade... the successful man of letters is your skilful tradesman. He thinks first and foremost of the markets.

I think writing a book with film in mind is a way to write a really bad books. You can usually tell those books that are packaged to become films.

Novels written with film contracts in mind have a faint but unmistakable, and ruinous, odor.

I've been through the whole western world, and it seems to me that there's more retail floor space devoted to the sale of books than food! There's more retail floor space devoted to the sale of books than there's been in the entire history of humanity! It's grotesque!

Literature nowadays is a trade. Putting aside men of genius, who may succeed by mere cosmic force, your successful man of letters is your skillful tradesman. He thinks first and foremost of the markets ...

I feel that I have an impractical and deleterious snobbery about the relation of literature to the market. I thought, 'I've become the kind of crap you buy at airports!' It was exciting, but it was not a fantasy I'd ever had.

I would like for my books to have been recognized posthumously, at least in capitalist countries, where they turn you into a kind of merchandise.