“That’s not writing, that’s typing.”

[Liar]

- Truman Capote on Jack Kerouac

That, and 29 more literary smackdowns from one author to another.

...here.

The mark Twain one is awesome.

 

[3113]

- Truman Capote on Jack Kerouac

That, and 29 more literary smackdowns from one author to another.

Said about Kerouac's On the Road which is now the best selling book app in Apple's app store. It's outselling the Bible (as a book app, that is). I suspect Truman would be jealous. I wonder if there'll be an app of In Cold Blood soon?

 

[kromen]

15. William Faulkner on Ernest Hemingway

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”

14. Ernest Hemingway on William Faulkner

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”

That's an issue I always butt heads with. Do I write down to embrace more readers?

 

[PennLady]

15. William Faulkner on Ernest Hemingway

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”

14. Ernest Hemingway on William Faulkner

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”

That's an issue I always butt heads with. Do I write down to embrace more readers?

I know this sounds simplistic, but I just use the word that fits. If it's an SAT word that would send someone to a dictionary, well, then, it is.

 

[Liar]

15. William Faulkner on Ernest Hemingway

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”

14. Ernest Hemingway on William Faulkner

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”

That's an issue I always butt heads with. Do I write down to embrace more readers?

I don't know if using common words is the same as writing down.

I think that one sign of a great writer, or artist in general, is the ability to take nothing but the most dull of tools, find out exatcly how to use them right, and then cut through steel like butter.

 

[TE999]

Hah! Good ones. Too bad Dorothy Parker wasn't included. She had some beauts. My favorite was her comment on 'Winnie The Pooh' by A.A. Milne in her column called "Constant Reader' in the 'New Yorker' magazine:

"Tonstant Weader fwowed up."

 

[voluptuary_manque]

The trouble is that in many of these cases, the criticized one is a better known and more often read writer than the critic. That's especially true in the case of Dorothy Parker. Besides, Milne wasn't writing for her and could have cared less what she thought. Same thing for J.R.R. Tolkien. He knew that the literati didn't like his work and didn't care. After all, he didn't like theirs!

I think Mark Twain put it best. "My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. . . . everybody drinks water. "

 

[estragon]

The problem with the majority of these put-downs is that they are cheap shots.

 

[SamScribble]

While on the subject ...

Gore Vidal on Capote: 'Truman Capote made lying an art. A minor art.'

Jacqueline Susann on Roth (after she had read Portnoy's Complaint: 'Philip Roth is a marvelous writer. But I'd hate to shake hands with him.'

And Truman Capote on Jacqueline Susann: 'She looks like a truck driver in drag.'

 

[PurrfectMoon]

I LOVE this..

18. Ralph Waldo Emerson on Jane Austen

“Miss Austen’s novels . . . seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in the wretched conventions of English society, without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world. Never was life so pinched and narrow. The one problem in the mind of the writer . . . is marriageableness.”

 

[Stella_Omega]

While on the subject ...

Gore Vidal on Capote: 'Truman Capote made lying an art. A minor art.'

Jacqueline Susann on Roth (after she had read Portnoy's Complaint: 'Philip Roth is a marvelous writer. But I'd hate to shake hands with him.'

And Truman Capote on Jacqueline Susann: 'She looks like a truck driver in drag.'

Capote looked like a truck driver in drag too. But that's hardly a comment about his writing.
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcReHnYytarDr1Au3_MKWRLtMqw2_0xjohm6oBCB4q0ZBLYbcpbtqA

 

[kromen]

I don't know if using common words is the same as writing down.

I think that one sign of a great writer, or artist in general, is the ability to take nothing but the most dull of tools, find out exatcly how to use them right, and then cut through steel like butter.

My line of thinking as well, but sometimes I wonder if I get too simplistic.

 

[SamScribble]

Capote looked like a truck driver in drag too. But that's hardly a comment about his writing.
QUOTE]

My apologies for wandering off subject, Stella. I just liked the (almost) symmetry of Capote, Susann, and then Capote on Susann. I promise not to do it again.

Sam

 

[baphemetis]

4. Mark Twain on Jane Austen (1898)

"Every time I read ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

Little did Mark Twain know that he would be the inspiration for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies....

 

[Stella_Omega]

Capote looked like a truck driver in drag too. But that's hardly a comment about his writing.
QUOTE]

My apologies for wandering off subject, Stella. I just liked the (almost) symmetry of Capote, Susann, and then Capote on Susann. I promise not to do it again.

Sam

One of my favorite literary ironies used to be (back when there were bookstores with GLBT lit on a seperate shelf)the way William Burroughs, that misogynistic old queen, was shelved right next to Pat Califia, the voice of butch dykes and queer BDSM. My two favorite queer writers. They would have hated each other had they ever met.

But then Pat became Patrick and assumed an all-boys-all-the-time attitude very similar to Ol' Bill's. So now they are merely congruent rather than conflicted.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I LOVE this..

18. Ralph Waldo Emerson on Jane Austen

“Miss Austen’s novels . . . seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in the wretched conventions of English society, without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world. Never was life so pinched and narrow. The one problem in the mind of the writer . . . is marriageableness.”

This is so not true, actually. The one problem in her character's minds was marriage. Austen managed to touch upon many other issues while her characters were looking the other way.

Makes me think Emerson was an inattentive reader.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Jack Kerouac gives balding english perfessers sweaty bonerettes, but Capote inspires the world.

 

[bronzeage]

This is so not true, actually. The one problem in her character's minds was marriage. Austen managed to touch upon many other issues while her characters were looking the other way.

Makes me think Emerson was an inattentive reader.

Imagine what Emerson might have said about Hemingway and his fish story.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

The trouble is that in many of these cases, the criticized one is a better known and more often read writer than the critic. That's especially true in the case of Dorothy Parker. Besides, Milne wasn't writing for her and could have cared less what she thought. Same thing for J.R.R. Tolkien. He knew that the literati didn't like his work and didn't care. After all, he didn't like theirs!

I think Mark Twain put it best. "My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. . . . everybody drinks water. "

And Parker wasn't really writing a book review of Winnie the Pooh; she had received a copy for review by "Constant Reader" and decided to have some fun in her column. (And why would the publisher send Winnie the Pooh to the New Yorker for review?)

 

[3113]

Capote looked like a truck driver in drag too.

Probably knew up close and personal what they looked like, too

My two favorite queer writers. They would have hated each other had they ever met.

But then Pat became Patrick and assumed an all-boys-all-the-time attitude very similar to Ol' Bill's. So now they are merely congruent rather than conflicted.

Why am I not surprised

 

[mynameisben]

Danielle Steel is the only best-selling author I know who clearly has written more books than she's read.

 

[PennLady]

This is so not true, actually. The one problem in her character's minds was marriage. Austen managed to touch upon many other issues while her characters were looking the other way.

Makes me think Emerson was an inattentive reader.

Not to mention, at that time, of course a woman's attentions were on getting married. Not like there were many choices, otherwise. And Stella's right, Austen hits other stops along the way.

 

[TE999]

Another favorite quote from Dorothy Parker: "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

 

[mynameisben]

Better than Stephen King you say? Hmm... How about an epileptic monkey with a pen up his ass?

 

[PennLady]

The problem with the majority of these put-downs is that they are cheap shots.

No, no. When famous people do them they are "sound bites." Or "witty remarks."