"Without the book business it would be difficult……" — John McGahern
"Without the book business it would be difficult or impossible for true books to find their true readers and without that solitary (and potentially subversive) alone with a book the whole razzmatazz of prizes, banquets, television spectaculars, bestseller lists, even literature courses, editors and authors, are all worthless. Unless a book finds lovers among those solitary readers, it will not live . . . or live for long."
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John McGahern
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34 Quotes by John McGahern
John McGahern has 34 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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When I start to write, words have become physical presence. It was to see if I could bring that private…
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When you're in danger of losing a thing it becomes precious and when it's around us, it's in tedious abundance…
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The best of life is life lived quietly, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change…
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Anything that is given can be at once taken away. We have to learn never to expect anything, and when…
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Ireland is a peculiar society in the sense that it was a nineteenth century society up to about 1970 and…
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My favorite optimist was an American who jumped off the Empire State Building, and as he passed the 42nd floor,…
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As a writer, I write to see. If I knew how it would end, I wouldn't write. It's a process…
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When I was in my 20s it did occur to me that there was something perverted about an attitude that…
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I used to take five or six books away and bring five or six books back. Nobody gave me direction…
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...with a rush of feeling he felt that this must be happiness. As soon as the thought came to him,…
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Nothing ever holds together unless it is mixed with some of one's own blood
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I think technique can be taught but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, and…
See all 34 quotes by John McGahern »
More All Quotes
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Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally…
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The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes…
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Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of…
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We have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and…
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I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is…
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We must all make peace so that we can all live in peace.
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As we all know, many people remain buried under tons of rubble and debris, waiting to be rescued. When we…
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Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
— Aristophanes
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A friend to all is a friend to none.
— Aristotle
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