This one is one of my favorites – James Joyce is speaking about Ulysses:
“The pity is that the public will demand and find a moral in my book, or worse they may take it in some serious way, and on the honour of a gentleman, there is not one single serious word in it.”
— Joyce on Ulysses
When I first picked up Ulysses, I had already read that quote – so I rollicked my way through the book, keeping his words in mind. It was much more fun that way.
I wish I had read this quote before my first reading of Ulysses. If I had, I would have struggled less, and enjoyed much more. I embarked on reading it in such a state of serious contemplation that I was a bore and burden to all who knew me.