There are three stages in scientific discovery. First, people deny that it is true, then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person.
Bill BrysonRead
I always tell people there's only one trick to writing: You have to write something that people are willing to pay money to read. It doesn't have to be very good, necessarily, but somebody, somewhere, has got to be willing to pay money for it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing should appeal to an audience willing to pay for it, regardless of its quality.
Bill Bryson emphasizes the practical aspect of writing, highlighting that the most crucial element is not necessarily the quality of the writing itself but the writer's ability to create content that resonates with readers enough for them to be willing to invest financially in it. This statement underscores the importance of understanding one's audience and market dynamics in the writing profession.
Themes
WritingAudienceMoneyContentQuality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a writing workshop to encourage participants to focus on audience engagement.
More from Bill Bryson
All quotes →For most of us the rules of English grammar are at best a dimly remembered thing. But even for those who make the rules, grammatical correctitude sometimes proves easier to urge than to achieve. Among the errors cited in this book are a number committed by some of the leading authorities of this century. If men such as Fowler and Bernstein and Quirk and Howard cannot always get their English right, is it reasonable to expect the rest of us to?
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I became quietly seized with that nostalgia that overcomes you when you have reached the middle of your life and your father has recently died and it dawns on you that when he went he took some of you with him.
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Open your refrigerator door, and you summon forth more light than the total amount enjoyed by most households in the 18th century. The world at night, for much of history, was a very dark place indeed.
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The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose
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Those who sniff decay in every shift of sense or alteration of usage do the language no service. Too often for such people the notion of good English has less to do with expressing ideas clearly than with making words conform to some arbitrary pattern.
Bill BrysonRead
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