Art & Creativity Quote by Orson Scott Card

A throwaway confession that lands like a wink between professionals: the person who makes books for a living still can’t stop acquiring them. Coming from Orson Scott Card, it reads less like a joke about clutter and more like a glimpse of the writer’s private infrastructure. Writers don’t just read; they stockpile possibility. “Way too many” signals excess, guilt, even a touch of self-mockery, but it also implies devotion to the medium in its most physical form. In an age when text is endlessly streamable, he frames books as objects worth hoarding.

The intent is disarmingly human. Card, often discussed in public for big ideas and big controversies, narrows the frame to a domestic vice. That move is strategic: it invites solidarity from readers (“me too”), and it repositions the author as first a fan, then a maker. The subtext is that a writing life is inseparable from consumption, apprenticeship, and curiosity; the bookshelf becomes a visible ledger of ambition and anxiety. Buying books is an optimistic act - you’re purchasing future versions of yourself who will have the time, attention, and hunger to read them.

Context matters because Card is a science fiction author, a genre built on expansive worldbuilding and voracious input. The line quietly suggests research without saying “research,” and it hints at the common creator’s paradox: the more you produce, the more you realize how much you don’t know. The humor works because it’s specific, self-incriminating, and culturally legible - a mild sin that signals seriousness.