Among the multitude of scholars and authors, we feel no hallowing presence; we are sensible of a knack and skill rather than of inspiration; they have a light, and know not whence it comes, and call it their own; their talent is some exaggerated faculty, some overgrown member, so that their strength is a disease.
I think that China has many outstanding authors, and their great works should also be recognised by the world.
Authors, he thought. Even the sane ones are nuts.
If anyone ever wonders why there's nothing coming from me, it's not my fault. I'm doing the work. No, I haven't deteriorated or gone insane. Suddenly, I just can't get anything into print. And apparently I'm not alone in this. There are people of very high standing, authors who are having problems. So I have been told. In my own case, the more disturbing element is the editor-in-chief who said to me, "I think this book is terrific. It ought to be in print. I can't publish it -- I've been told I mustn't. " The indication is that I'm not writing what people want to read, but I never did.
Book publishing would be so much easier without the authors.
The authors of all our misfortune.
It can happen that a book, unlike its authors, grows younger as the years pass.
All authors to their own defects are blind.
In the degree that we remember and retell our stories and create new ones we become the authors, the authorities, of our own lives.
To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and 'improved' by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to each other, spanning nine centuries
Books, like men their authors, have no more than one wayofcoming intothe world, but there areten thousand to go out of it, and return no more.
Authors were shy, unsociable creatures, atoning for their lack of social aptitude by inventing their own companions and conversations.
You have a very open relationship with your fans. " "Yes. We have an open relationship. Obviously they can see other authors if they want, and I can see other readers.
We need to be the authors of our own life.
Publishing should be a collaboration between authors and their smartest readers - and at some point the distinction should become meaningless.
Authors can write stories without people assuming that they are autobiographies, but songwriters and poets are often considered to be the characters in their works. I like Michelangelo's vision, 'I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
Mostly what ends up inspiring me and affecting my work are books by authors that I love.
When you read a history or biography you are entitled to imagine that it is as accurate as the authors can make it. That research has gone into it and we say "This is a history of the civil war, this is a biography of Lincoln" whatever. But you don't make any such supposition when you say "This is a historical novel. "
It is impossible for authors to discover beauties in one another's works; they have eyes only for spots and blemishes.
Poets can tell the truth as they see it. It’s the author’s story, the author’s voice.
