Famous Literary Smart Guys

Still 'phoning it in, you betcha. There is not enough coffee in the world ...

Mark Twain on Jane Austen (1898)

“I haven’t any right to criticize books, and I don’t do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can’t conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

From the readers, slightly more contemporary.

(Need to at least start coffee before going through all 20 for a selection. Just wait right there.)

H.L. Mencken on Gertrude Stein

“It is the great achievement of Miss Stein that she has made English easier to write and harder to read.” – Suggested by Jess

Same thing we try to do here.