Wherefore seeing we alsoare compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Hebrews12:1^2.

The author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom.

-Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Second Collect, for Peace.

Lord of all powerand might, who arttheauthorand giver of all good things.

-Book of Common Prayer
Collects,7th Sunday after Trinity.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

-Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)
  Heretics, ch.15.

The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of.

-Collins, Billy
  Taking off Emily Dickinson's Clothes: Selected Poems, 'Forgetfulness'.

I should like to see the custom introduced of readers who are pleased with a book sending the author some small cash token† Not more than a hundred poundsöthat would be bad for my characterönot less than half a crownöthat would do no good to yours.

-Connolly, Cyril Vernon
  Enemies of Promise, ch.13.

Le ro" l e d'un auteur est un ro"  le assez vain; c'est celui d'un homme qui se croit en e¤  tat de donner des le c° ons au public. Et le ro"  le du critique? Il est bien plus vain encore; c'est celui d'un homme qui se croit en e¤  tat de donner des le c° ons a'   celui qui se croit en e¤  tat d'en donner au public. Therole oftheauthor isvain enough; it isthat of a person who considers himself able to give lessons to the public. And the role of the critic? It is vainer still; it is that of a person who considers himself able to give lessons to he who considers himself able to give them to the public.

-Diderot, Denis
  Discours sur la poe¤  sie dramatique.

Choose an author as you choose a friend.

-Dillon,Wentworth
  Essay on Translated Verse, l.96.

An author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.

-Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
  Rectorial address, Glasgow,19 Nov.

When the first-rate author wants an exquisite heroine or a lovely morning, he finds that all the superlatives have beenwornshoddy by hisinferiors.It should be a rulethat bad writers must start with plain heroines and ordinary mornings, and, if they are able, work up to something better.

-Fitzgerald, F(rancis) Scott Key
Note Books, L, in Edmund Wilson (ed)  The Crack-Up (1945).

   The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer, (Like the cover of an old book, Its contents worn out, And stripped of its lettering and gilding) Lies here, food for worms! Yet the work itself shall not be lost, For it will, as he believed, appear once more In a new And more beautiful edition, Corrected and amended By its Author!

-Franklin, Benjamin
  Proposed epitaph for himself.

You maydream freely whenyou listen tomusic as well as when you look at painting.When you read a book you are the slave of the author's mind.

-Gauguin, Paul
c.1888  Notes Synthe¤  tiques, quoted in  J Rewald Gauguin (1938).

Do you know how they are going to decide the Shakespeare^Bacon dispute? Theyare going to dig up Shakespeareand dig up Bacon; theyaregoing toget Tree to recite Hamlet to them. And the one who turns in his coffin will be the author of the play.

-Gilbert, Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck)
Letter.

Ich sei nicht nur als Autor, sondern auch als Mann betroffen.Und zwar irgendwie schuldhaft. I am moved, not onlyas an author, but as a person. And feel somehow guilty.

-Grass, Gu«  nter Wilhelm
  Der Butt (translated as The Flounder,1978).

I shall be but a shrimp of an author.

-Gray,Thomas
  Letter to Horace Walpole, 25 Feb.

He writes as fast as they can read, and he does not write himself down† His worst is better than any other person's best† His works (taken together) are almost like a new edition of human nature. This is indeed to be an author!

-Hazlitt,William
  Spirit of the Age,'Sir Walter Scott'.

A bad book isasmuchof a labour towriteas a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author's soul.

-Huxley, Aldous Leonard
  Point Counter Point, ch.13.

There are two things which I am confident I can do very well: one is an introduction to a literary work, stating what it is to contain, and how it should be executed in the most perfect manner; the other is a conclusion, shewing from various causes why the execution has not been equal to what the author promised to himself and to the public.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Quoted in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.1.

It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life†to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage or punished for neglect† Among these unhappy mortals isthe writer of dictionaries† Every other author mayaspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  A Dictionary of the English Language, preface.

C'est un me¤  tier que de faire un livre, comme de faire une pendule; il faut plus que de l'esprit pour e"  tre auteur. It is as much a trade to write a book as it is to make a watch; it takes more than wit to make an author.

-La Bruye'  re,Jean de
  Les Caracte'  res ou les m½urs de ce sie'  cle,'Des ouvrages de l'esprit', no.3.