Academic Quote by Sarah Waters

I knew Id always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, Well, Id rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one.

— Sarah Waters

“I sometimes marvel that a third-rate writer like me has been able to palm himself off as a second-rate writer.”

— John Collier

The qualities of a second-rate writer can easily be defined, but a first-rate writer can only be experienced. It is just the thing in…

— Willa Cather

“Nothing is more painful to me than the disdain with which people treat second-rate authors, as if there were room only for the first-raters.”

— Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve

When I teach writing, I have a mantra: 'Be a first-rate version of yourself, and not a second-rate version of another writer.'

— David Morrell

I'd always much rather be second choice on anything because it makes you work harder.

— Noel Clarke

I had thought of writing, actually, and that later on I'd be a novelist.

— Francois Truffaut

I have an English literature degree. I wanted to be the next great American novelist from a very early age, but I put it…

— Daniel Suarez

I had to decide if I wanted to be known as a writer or a reader. I chose writer.

— Nathan Lowell

The world may be full of fourth-rate writers but it's also full of fourth-rate readers.

— Anonymous

I'm not sure if I always wanted to be a writer, but I was always writing.

— Steve Toltz

I pretty much always wanted to be a writer.

— Jane Goldman