I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.
Interpretation
An author prefers recognition, even negative, over being ignored.
This quote by Samuel Johnson highlights the importance of acknowledgment in the creative arts. It suggests that an author values the response to their work—be it criticism or praise—more than the absence of a response, as silence can signify that their efforts are not valued or appreciated. This reflects a broader truth about human nature: we crave recognition and validation for our contributions and creativity.
In practice
A writer might use this quote in a workshop to emphasize the importance of feedback on their work.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.
Century-old records are the closest thing we have to a time machine. To listen to the voice of Theodore Roosevelt or the piano playing of Claude Debussy is to feel the years falling away like autumn leaves from a maple tree.
But even her demons she invested with inordinate beauty, consecrated them with the dignity of her attention.
There's no way that music could ever go down the tubes. I can't imagine a civilization without music. When you realize today that music is such a part of people's lives. And will always be, really.
My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple for me. It is a place where_x000D_ _x000D_ the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odors carry_x000D_ _x000D_ meaning that transfers from the past and bridges to the future.
Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s anchor. We are the compass for humanity’s conscience.
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