Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) philosopher and university president
Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education (1954)
“The current publishing scene is extremely good for the big, popular books. They sell them brilliantly, market them and all that. It is not good for the little books. And really valuable books have been allowed to go out of print. In the old days, the publishers knew that these difficult books, the books that appeal only to a minority, were very productive in the long run. Because they're probably the books that will be read in the next generation. It's heart-breaking how often I have to say when I'm giving talks, "This book is out of print. This book is out of print."”
It's a roll call of dead books.
Salon interview (1997)
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Doris Lessing94
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer … 1919–2013Related quotes
Arnold Lobel (1933–1987) American children's illustrator and writer
Lewis Buzbee (1957) American writer
Source: The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History
“A book, once it is printed and published, becomes individual.”
James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) American author
"A Note on Cabellian Harmonics" in Cabellian Harmonics (April 1928)
Context: A book, once it is printed and published, becomes individual. It is by its publication as decisively severed from its author as in parturition a child is cut off from its parent. The book "means" thereafter, perforce, — both grammatically and actually, — whatever meaning this or that reader gets out of it.
Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director
From the thirteenth book, "The Book of the Dead"
The Pillow Book
“When you publish a book, it’s the world’s book. The world edits it.”
Philip Roth (1933–2018) American novelist
"A Visit with Philip Roth," interview with James Atlas, The New York Times Book Review (2 September 1979), p. BR1
“It is impossible to publish your book, and it will not be published in the next 200 years.”
Vasily Grossman (1905–1964) Soviet writer and journalist who originally trained as an engineer
1960s
William Darling (politician) (1885–1962) Scottish politician
Source: The Bankrupt Bookseller (1947), p. 56