Being Quote by Joanna Scott

Confusing the author and the character seems to be a popular and rather unsophisticated reaction to books.

— Mark Lawrence

Even though I think writers can sometimes thrive from being misread. It can give them something to push off of.

— Matthew Specktor

The job of the novel is to be true to the confusion, but not so confusing that you turn the reader off.

— Nicholson Baker

I think writers can gain a lot of vitality from being misread.

— Matthew Specktor

I think it’s fairly common for writers to be afflicted with two simultaneous yet contradictory delusions, the burning certainty that we’re unique geniuses, and…

— Scott Lynch

“He who would be a writer, fine, Must take a deal of pains, Must criticize his every line, And mix his ink with brains.”

— Platt Rogers Spencer

If the writer were more like a reader, he’d be a reader, not a writer. It’s as uncomplicated as that.

— Julian Barnes

“I love the unanswered question, the unresolved story, the unclimbed mountain, the tender shard of an incomplete dream. Most of the time. But is…

— Arundhati Roy

“Sometimes a writer is punished by misunderstanding from what he had written...”

— Navnath Godse

Like the weaver, the writer works on the wrong side of his material. He has only to do with the language, and it is…

— Maurice Merleau-Ponty

A writer never reads his work. For him, it is the unreadable, a secret, and he cannot remain face to face with it. A…

— Maurice Blanchot

“A writer is a man who has taught his mind to misbehave.”

— Stephen King