Class Quote by Witold Gombrowicz

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

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

— John Collier

There was a time when Stefan Zweig was the most widely read author in the world. He was lionized everywhere, translated into every language.…

— Andre Aciman

All attempts at gaining literary polish must begin with judicious reading, and the learner must never cease to hold this phase uppermost. In many…

— H. P. Lovecraft

That writer does the most who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.

— Charles Caleb Colton

I learned a lot from Russell T. Davies, who is the most wonderful writer.

— Lesley Sharp

I read like everybody - like every other writer.

— Nat Hentoff

“I found out after reading quite a lot of it that it is not rated very high. He has a very descriptive way of…

— Wilkie Collins

When it comes to writers, I'm a huge fan of Ian McEwan. I've never taken a writing course, but reading and deconstructing his novels…

— Deborah Copaken Kogan

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

— Anonymous

Any decent writer writes because there's some deep internal need to keep learning.

— Stephen Jay Gould