Most editors are failed writers — but so are most writers.

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
(Attributed) (1946)

Quoted by Robert Geroux, "A Personal Memoir," in Tate, Allen, ed. T. S. Eliot: The Man and his Work (1967) (orig. printed in the Sewanee Review, vol. 74 (1966)): 

I first met T. S. Eliot in 1946, when I was an editor at Harcourt, Brace, under Frank Morley. I was just past thirty, and Eliot was in his late fifties. [...] agreed with the definition that most editors are failed writers, and he replied: `Perhaps, but so are most writers.'

Sometimes given as "Some editors ..." and prefixed with "I suppose most ..." and "I suppose some ..."


 
Added on 10-Nov-09 | Last updated 10-Nov-09
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