A. Scott Berg Quotes & Sayings

Publishing is not, of course, dependent on the individual taste of the publisher," Perkins replied to one reader of Hemingway's novel. "He is under an obligation to his profession which binds him to bring out a work which in the judgment of the literary world is significant in its literary qualities and is a pertinent criticism of the civilization of the time. — A. Scott Berg

There are hundreds of books about Woodrow Wilson, but I have an image of him in my mind that is unlike any picture I have seen anywhere else, based on material at Princeton and 35 years of researching and thinking about him. — A. Scott Berg

I'm so blessed to have such enlightened parents. It must have been very hard to watch their able-bodied son lock himself up in his old room for most of his 20s. — A. Scott Berg

I read my first book on Woodrow Wilson at age 15, and I was hooked. — A. Scott Berg

After 'Lindbergh,' my publisher asked whom I wanted to write about next. I said, 'There's one idea I've been carrying in my hip pocket for 35 years. It's Woodrow Wilson.' — A. Scott Berg

I think a biography is only as interesting as the lives and times it illuminates. — A. Scott Berg

I like my subjects to be American, and not too dead, so I can interview people who knew them. — A. Scott Berg

Clark Gable seemed fascinating all his life because there wasn't so much information about him. Today, you're on television all the time. — A. Scott Berg

There is always a certain leap of faith that editors have made with their nonfiction writers. If the trust is broken, things can get very embarrassing for the writers and the publisher. — A. Scott Berg

I am a compulsive worker. But I'm also a compulsive relaxer. — A. Scott Berg

I don't know of a soul who packed more living into 72 years than Charles Lindbergh did. — A. Scott Berg

There's a good feeling about them. It's something I like to find in fiction. So many writers master form and technique, but get so little feeling into their work. I think that's important. — A. Scott Berg

Max said little. His essential quality was always to say little, but by powerful empathy for writers and for books to draw out of them what they had it in them to say and to write. — A. Scott Berg

Max sent Scottie some literary advice, the same dictum he gave every college student who called on him. He stressed the importance of a liberal arts education but urged her to avoid all courses in writing. "Everyone has to find her own way of writing," he wrote Scottie, "and the source of finding it is largely out of literature. — A. Scott Berg

I developed a mania for Fitzgerald - by the time I'd graduated from high school I'd read everything he'd written. I started with 'The Great Gatsby' and moved on to 'Tender Is the Night,' which just swept me away. Then I read 'This Side of Paradise,' his novel about Princeton - I literally slept with that book under my pillow for two years. — A. Scott Berg

When most people think of Woodrow Wilson, they see a dour minister's son who never cracked a smile, where in fact he was a man of genuine joy and great sadness. — A. Scott Berg

By the '40s, Sam Goldwyn is a very serious man. By the '50s, he's the dean of American producers. To the end, he was Hollywood's gray eminence. — A. Scott Berg

I think it is important for readers to know that it is possible to bring intellectualism and idealism to the White House and still be political enough to advance an agenda. — A. Scott Berg

The successful editor is one who is constantly finding newwriters, nurturing their talents, and publishing them with critical and financial success. — A. Scott Berg