“If he wrote it, he could get rid of it. He had gotten rid of many things by writing them.”
“Should novels generally be 600 pages? No, they should not. Half of writing, maybe 3/4 of writing, is editing. This seems to be a thing that has not gotten through to them. It’s my impression that you could get rid of half of most of these books. These people are not good enough to be this long, but they’re apparently also not good enough to be shorter.”
Ruminator Magazine interview http://www.ruminator.com/?p=82 with Susannah McNeely (August/September 2005).
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Fran Lebowitz 34
author and public speaker from the United States 1950Related quotes
Personal inscription on a copy of Mother Goose in Prose (1897) which he gave to his sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster, as quoted in The Making of the Wizard of Oz (1998) by Aljean Harmetz, p. 317
Letters and essays
Context: When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children. For aside from my evident inability to do anything "great," I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward.
Letter to Anna (1814-09-28) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters
“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”
Interview for The Collider (2008) http://collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/8878/tcid/1/pg/2.
“Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book -and does”