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.
People wonder why the novel is the most popular form of literature; people wonder why it is read more than books of science or books of metaphysics. The reason is very simple; it is merely that the novel is more true than they are.
What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.
One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it.
In novels, and American novels in particular, it's not just about redemption, it's about forward movement and healing oneself. Americans are very big on getting better.
My theory is that literature is essential to society in the way that dreams are essential to our lives. We can't live without dreaming - as we can't live without sleep. We are 'conscious' beings for only a limited period of time, then we sink back into sleep - the 'unconscious.' It is nourishing, in ways we can't fully understand.
Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none
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