The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Just as good books give me the joys of being alive, bad novels depress me, and as I notice this sentiment coming from the pages, I stop. I also do not hesitate to walk out of a movie house if the film is bad.
The only book worth writing is the book that threatens to kill you.
Very wonderful books might be published, and very terrible books might be published.
Even bad books are books and therefore sacred.
I really am not affected by the tragic aspects of my books.
But you cannot expect every writer to dwell on human suffering. I think my books do deal with grave issues. People who say they are too positive probably haven't read them.
Every book for me is a chapter in the long book which will finally be closed on the day of my death.
I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.
What annoys me about most self-help books is that they have no tragic sense. They have no sense that life is fundamentally incomplete rather than accidentally incomplete.
Even the worst book can give us something to think about.