“A newspaper, as I'm sure you know, is a collection of supposedly true stories written down by writers who either saw them happen or talked to people who did. These writers are called journalists, and like telephone operators, butchers, ballerinas, and people who clean up after horses, journalists can sometimes make mistakes.”

— Daniel Handler , book The Vile Village

Lemony Snicket
The Vile Village (2001)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A newspaper, as I'm sure you know, is a collection of supposedly true stories written down by writers who either saw th…" by Daniel Handler?

Daniel Handler 190

American novelist, children's writer, creator of Lemony Sni… 1970

Related quotes

“Journalists who make mistakes get sued for libel; historians who make mistakes get to publish a revised edition.”

Bill Moyers (1934) American journalist

"The Big Story", speech to the Texas State Historical Association (7 March 1997), as quoted in Moyers on Democracy (2008), p. 131

“When the devil wants to destroy talented writers, he makes them journalists. Thus he makes sure he has killed their creativity.”

Teodor Burnar

“No writer who knows the great writers who did not receive the Prize can accept it other than with humility.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Nobel Prize Speech (1954)
Context: No writer who knows the great writers who did not receive the Prize can accept it other than with humility. There is no need to list these writers. Everyone here may make his own list according to his knowledge and his conscience.

“Translation from Bulgarian: I believe the role of both the journalist and the writer is to analyze critically. Of course, both the writer and the journalist pay a price for this.”

Lea Cohen (1942)

Смятам, че ролята и на журналиста, и на писателя е критичният анализ. Разбира се и писателят, и журналистът плащат съответната цена.
Програма Хоризонт, https://bnr.bg/post/101200075, Bulgarian National Radio, December 2019

“I've always felt strongly that a writer shouldn't be engaged with other writers, or with people who make books, or even with people who read them. I think the farther away you get from the literary traffic, the closer you are to sources.”

Nelson Algren (1909–1981) American novelist, short story writer

"The Art of Fiction No. 11" (1955)
Context: I don't know many writers. [... ] Well, I dunno, but I do have the feeling that other writers can't help you with writing. I've gone to writers' conferences and writers' sessions and writers' clinics, and the more I see of them, the more I'm sure it's the wrong direction. It isn't the place where you learn to write. I've always felt strongly that a writer shouldn't be engaged with other writers, or with people who make books, or even with people who read them. I think the farther away you get from the literary traffic, the closer you are to sources. I mean, a writer doesn't really live, he observes.