"I object to publishers: the one service..." - Quote by George Bernard Shaw
I object to publishers: the one service they have done me is to teach me to do without them. They combine commercial rascality with artistic touchiness and pettishness, without being either good business men or fine judges of literature.
More by George Bernard Shaw
“Man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid...There is no harm in a well-fed lion. It has no ideals, no sect, no party.”
“Only fools repeat the same things over and over, expecting to obtain different results.”
“This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
More on Publishing
“An author who gives a manager or publisher any rights in his work except those immediately and specifically required for its publication or performance is for business purposes an imbecile.”
“For 20 years, Simon & Schuster asked me, 'Why don't you write your autobiography?'”
“No publisher should ever express an opinion of the value of what he publishes. That is a matter entirely for the literary critic to decide.”
More on Business
“A grocer is attracted to his business by a magnetic force as great as the repulsion which renders it odious to artists.”
“The best business returns are usually achieved by companies that are doing something quite similar today to what they were doing five or ten years ago.”
“Our approach is very much profiting from lack of change rather than from change.”