Nothing Is More Impotent Than an Unread Library

John Waters? Austin Kleon? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: Building a library is an enjoyable lifelong pursuit. Intellectually engaged people are often bibliomaniacs. Yet, many acquired volumes are never read. This behavior has been condemned and praised in two radically different statements that differ by a single word:

(1) Nothing is more impotent than an unread library.
(2) Nothing is more important than an unread library.

Remarkably, both of these comments have been attributed to the transgressive filmmaker John Waters. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: In 2010 John Waters published “Role Models” which contained the following passage. Boldface added to excepts by QI:^[1] 2010, Role Models by John Waters, Chapter: Bookworm, Quote Page 163, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. (Verified with scans)

Being rich is not about how much money you have or how many homes you own; it’s the freedom to buy any book you want without looking at the price and wondering if you can afford it. Of course, you have to read the books, too. Nothing is more impotent than an unread library.

John Waters did not employ the variant statement with the word “important”. It was mistakenly credited to Waters in a 2012 book mentioned further below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In June 2010 “Vanity Fair” magazine published a profile of Waters which included the quotation:^[2] 2010 June, Vanity Fair, Volume 52, Issue 6, Uncharted Waters by John Heilpern,  Start Page 54, Condé Nast Publications, New York. (ProQuest)

He’s a meticulous man, too. His library of some 8,000 books is carefully catalogued. He’s a bookworm. Nothing is more impotent than an unread library, he says.

In 2012 artist Austin Kleon published the bestseller “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative”. Kleon incorrectly attributed the variant to Waters:^[3]2012 Copyright, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon, Chapter 1: Steal Like an Artist, Quote Page 20, Workman Publishing Company, New York. (Verified … Continue reading

Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Filmmaker John Waters has said, “Nothing is more important than an unread library.”
Don’t worry about doing research. Just search.

Kleon subsequently noticed this error, and it has been fixed in current editions. Unfortunately, the error has inadvertently been repeated by others. For example, in 2016 a columnist in the “Inland Valley Daily Bulletin” of Ontario, California reprinted a quotation he saw in a bookstore:^[4]2016 December 27, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, What do you call that pile of books you meant to read? And other literary references by David Allen, Quote Page Unspecified, Ontario, California. … Continue reading

This quote from John Waters, seen at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena and jotted down, is apropos: “Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.”

In 2019 a columnist in the “Financial Times” of London also unknowingly propagated the misattribution:^[5] 2019 September 28, Financial Times, Colour-coded book spines get my back up Edward Luke, Start Page 2, London, England. (ProQuest)

John Waters, the American film director, has said lots of brilliant things about books, but one of my favourites has to be: “Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.” This makes me feel better about my habit, because I cannot walk past a bookshop without picking something up.

In 2020 “Library Technology Reports” credited Waters with the correct quotation:^[6] 2020 October, Library Technology Reports, Volume 56, Issue 7, Chapter 1. Introduction by Mirela Roncevic, (Chapter epigraph), Start Page 5, Quote Page 5, Chicago, Illinois. (ProQuest)

“Nothing is more impotent than an unread library.”
John Waters, Role Models

Austin Kleon deserves praise for candidly discussing the error in a tweet from August 2022:^[7]Tweet, From: Austin Kleon @austinkleon, Time: 10:57 AM, Date: August 16, 2022, Text: That said, there’s a big mistake in the first edition of STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST… (Accessed on twitter.com on … Continue reading

That said, there’s a big mistake in the first edition of STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST: I quote John Waters as saying, “Nothing is more important than an unread library.” The word he used was IMPOTENT.😂 So, for later editions, I took out his attribution and kept it for myself.

The 2022 kindle edition of Kleon’s book does not contain the attribution to Waters:^[8] 2022 Copyright, Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, Chapter 1: Steal Like an Artist, Quote Page 20, Location 113, Workman Publishing Company, New York. (Kindle edition)

Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.

The 2022 audiobook edition of Kleon’s book contains a different modification:^[9]2022 Copyright, The Steal Like an Artist Audio Trilogy: How to Be Creative, Show Your Work, and Keep Going by Austin Kleon, Chapter 1: Steal Like an Artist, (Audio location within chapter: 7 minutes … Continue reading

Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. The unread books in your library are just as important as the ones you’ve read.

In conclusion, John Waters deserves credit for the first quotation which appeared in his 2010 book “Role Models”. Austin Kleon deserves credit for the second quotation which he created by misremembering the remark of Waters.

Image Notes: Circular depiction of a library from geralt at Pixabay. Image has been resized.

(Great thanks to Austin Kleon whose forthright tweet led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.)