Author

The big bestsellers aren't being created by Barnes & Noble.

If you're a retailer and know that once a year you're going to get Mary Higgins Clark's book on a given date, you're going to have an awful lot of copies out there in time for that. You'd have to be simple-minded not to do that - although bookselling prior to 1950 never made that connection.

From Michael Korda

The bestseller list is the tip of the iceberg.

From Michael Korda

Much of my publishing life was consumed by the memoirs of movie stars - or by attempts to get them to write a memoir.

From Michael Korda

Surrounded by high-paid publicity people and professional ego massagers, movie stars, like politicians, almost invariably come to believe that they are nicer, more charming, and more beloved than they appear to be to a casual observer, and that their stories about their careers are universally fascinating.

From Michael Korda

Years of standing in the limelight portraying other people for large amounts of money does not usually lead to a high degree of self-examination, let alone self-criticism.

From Michael Korda

My own aunt was Merle Oberon, so movie stardom was not a faraway mystery to me as a child: it was part of the family business.

From Michael Korda

For a book publisher, there is hardly a more dangerous category than that of celebrity autobiography. Forget who it's by, most books of this kind not only fail but fail big, since they are invariably expensive.

From Michael Korda

The rich and famous expect to get a lot for their story, whether they are writing it themselves or not. It's not that they need the money, of course; it's a question of ego, like catching the biggest fish.

From Michael Korda

It's often said that everybody has a story to tell, and I suppose that's true, but the problem is that most of them aren't worth telling.

From Michael Korda

Michael Korda

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