It is a pity, in my opinion, that no prize exists for the writer who best refrains from adding to the world's bad books.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that writers should strive to avoid contributing to poor literature.
William Saroyan's quote highlights the unfortunate lack of recognition for writers who resist the temptation to produce subpar work. He expresses a desire for a system that honors those who choose quality over quantity in writing, emphasizing the value of thoughtful and meaningful contributions to literature.
In practice
Use this quote when discussing the importance of quality literature at a writer's workshop.
The purpose of writing is both to keep up with life and to run ahead of it. I am little comfort to myself, although I am the only comfort I have, excepting perhaps streets, clouds, the sun, the faces and voices of kids and the aged, and similar accidents of beauty, innocence, truth and loneliness.
San Francisco itself is art, above all literary art. Every block is a short story, every hill a novel. Every home a poem, every dweller within immortal. That is the whole truth.
I care so much about everything that I care about nothing.
I am interested in madness. I believe it is the biggest thing in the human race, and the most constant. How do you take away from a man his madness without also taking away his identity? Are we sure it is desirable for a man's spirit not to be at war with itself, or that it is better to be serene and ready to go to dinner than to be excited and unwilling to stop for a cup of coffee, even?
Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let it be free and unashamed.
Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
I defy anyone to finish Halldor Laxness's 'Independent People' without wetting the pages with tears.
A classic,' suggested Anthony, 'is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation. Then it's safe, like a style in architecture or furniture. It's acquired a picturesque dignity to take the place of its fashion.
I've been writing long enough to know that fiction, as a rhetorical mode, works very differently from expository writing. If an author has a specific critique about contemporary society in mind, fiction tends not to be the best means to deliver that critique.
you can tell the deepest truths with the lies of fiction
How is it that, a full two centuries after Jane Austen finished her manuscript, we come to the world of Pride and Prejudice and find ourselves transcending customs, strictures, time, mores, to arrive at a place that educates, amuses, and enthralls us? It is a miracle. We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.
It's extraordinary how many people read a book that's new and weird and befriend it.
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