Art & Creativity Quote by Richard Curtis

Curtis is sketching a hierarchy he knows he’s not supposed to admit out loud: print is the real audition, digital is the consolation prize. The line reads like a personal preference, but its real work is reputational. By “tend to turn down” and “only if,” he positions himself as discerning rather than fearful, as if the medium itself carries a quality control stamp. That’s the subtext: e-book-first publication is treated less as a format choice than as a signal of diminished gatekeeping, weaker editorial investment, and a shorter cultural half-life.

The phrasing is careful in a distinctly industry-aware way. He doesn’t declare e-books inferior; he makes them a last resort after “all traditional publishers” have passed. That conditional does two things at once. It flatters legacy publishing as the arbiter of seriousness and protects Curtis from seeming anti-tech: he’s not rejecting digital, he’s reserving it for material that couldn’t clear the old hurdles. It’s a quiet endorsement of institutional validation, the belief that prestige is something you’re granted, not something you build.

Context matters here because the e-book revolution wasn’t just about screens; it was about who gets to decide what counts. As self-publishing and digital imprints expanded, authors gained speed and control, but the ecosystem also flooded with work lacking robust editing and marketing. Curtis is reacting to that noise - and, just as importantly, to the anxiety that status can be bypassed. The quote functions as boundary maintenance: a writer publicly aligning with the cultural economy of hardcovers, reviews, prizes, and bookstore tables, even as the market keeps sliding toward pixels.