When I am dead, I hope it may be said: "His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.".

When I am dead, I hope it may be said: "His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.".

Unlike other people, our reviewers are powerful because they believe in nothing.

Unlike other people, our reviewers are powerful because they believe in nothing.

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.

It is very perplexing how an intrepid frontier people, who fought a wilderness, floods, tornadoes, and the Rockies, cower before read more

It is very perplexing how an intrepid frontier people, who fought a wilderness, floods, tornadoes, and the Rockies, cower before criticism, which is regarded as a malignant tumor in the imagination.

In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, read more

In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, and in Australia you have to explain what a writer is.

A good writer is not necessarily a good book critic. No more so than a good drunk is automatically a read more

A good writer is not necessarily a good book critic. No more so than a good drunk is automatically a good bartender.

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of read more

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why --but the editorialists forget it --terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.

I think we must quote whenever we feel that the allusion is interesting or helpful or amusing.

I think we must quote whenever we feel that the allusion is interesting or helpful or amusing.

Reading is like permitting a man to talk a long time, and refusing you the right to answer.

Reading is like permitting a man to talk a long time, and refusing you the right to answer.