"When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read"
About this Quote
The intent is defensive and offensive at once. On the surface, it’s self-deprecation, a comedian’s trick to disarm the room before the room gets its shots in. Underneath, it’s contempt for the culture that treats writing as a commodity and the writer as branding. Lewis wrote during the rise of mass media, lecture circuits, and celebrity-as-proof-of-worth. An author’s public persona was becoming a sales tool, and he’s suggesting the audience colludes in that bargain: they want the face, the voice, the awkwardness, the “type,” the reassuring sense that art can be reduced to a personality.
The subtext is also a warning to writers themselves. If you accept the stage, you’re inviting judgment on the wrong terms. You’re no longer competing with other books; you’re competing with your own image, and image is always faster, cheaper, and easier to consume than sentences. Lewis, who chronicled American boosterism and hypocrisy, spots the same dynamic here: even intellectual life can’t resist turning into entertainment.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Lewis, Sinclair. (2026, January 15). When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-audiences-come-to-see-us-authors-lecture-it-160880/
Chicago Style
Lewis, Sinclair. "When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-audiences-come-to-see-us-authors-lecture-it-160880/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-audiences-come-to-see-us-authors-lecture-it-160880/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
