Mickey Spillane? Terry Southern? David Halberstam? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The best-selling author of pulp thrillers was excoriated by literary critics. His reported response was harsh: The literary world is made of second-rate writers writing about other second-rate writers. This statement has been credited to Mickey Spillane, but I am skeptical because I have …
Tag Archives: Mickey Spillane
Quote Origin: Those Big-Shot Writers Could Never Dig the Fact That There Are More Salted Peanuts Consumed Than Caviar
Mickey Spillane? Hy Gardner? Frank Smikel? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Popular writers endure a litany of complaints directed at their prose, e.g., mediocre, clumsy, crude, uninteresting, and undemanding. A bestselling writer once employed a clever analogy to explain this antagonism. The writer contended that literary darlings were trying to market caviar, whereas popular writers …
If You Find a Book You Really Want To Read But It Hasn’t Been Written Yet, Then You Must Write It
Toni Morrison? Benjamin Disraeli? Mickey Spillane? C. S. Lewis? J. R. R. Tolkien? Janet Fitch? Ann Patchett? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The prominent American editor, writer, and educator Toni Morrison who authored the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Beloved” has been credited with an exhilarating remark about the creative process: If there’s a book you really want …