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I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
A bookish man's confession that he would rather talk to the author than read the author, which is why bookish people enjoy it as a wry reminder that print is a poor substitute for conversation. The popular wording adds the vivid 'half an hour'; the 1905 original is plainer.
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In context
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This is the popular form of a remark by Woodrow Wilson. The sourced version is a speech given in Kansas City on 12 May 1905, recorded in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson (volume 16, page 99): he said he only read a book because he could not see and talk with the man who wrote it. Wikiquote lists the 'half an hour' wording, the one shared online, as an unsourced variant of that remark.
Sources (1)
- Woodrow Wilson, WikiquoteSourced quotes, entry citing the Kansas City speech of 12 May 1905Reference checked
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