Variant: Only a generation of readers will span a generation of writers.
As quoted in The New York Times (2 July 1978)
“A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”
Source: Works of Samuel Johnson
The Figure a Poem Makes (1939)
Variant: The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.
Source: Collected Poems of Robert Frost
“If a writer doesn’t generate hostility, he is dead.”
As quoted from , "VS Naipaul: A controversial author who crafted his lines and insults", Indian Express (12 August 2018) https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/vs-naipaul-a-controversial-author-who-crafted-his-lines-and-insults/
“I am, really, a great writer; my only difficulty is in finding great readers.”
Quoted in George Jean Nathan The World of George Jean Nathan (1952) p. 252.
Source: The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, 1912, p. 10
