Logo - Feel The Words

Copies Quotes

What millions of copies sold actually mean.

These quotes come from authors and game creators talking candidly about what drives huge sales numbers, and why raw copy counts don't tell the full story. Learn more in our Book quotes collection.

You see, I used to do a certain amount of market research by going to the local drugstore and seeing what the truck drivers would put up. Now it's all just copies from the latest best-seller list and damn little...

Quotes by Jerry Pournelle

When I was in middle school, some of my so-called friends found a catalogue ad I did for Superman pajamas. They made as many copies as they could and pasted them up all over school.

Quotes by Jensen Ackles

One can envisage taking cells from a patient with sickle-cell anaemia or an inherited blood disorder and using the Cas9 system to fix the underlying genetic cause of the disease by putting those cells back into the patient and allowing...

Quotes by Jennifer Doudna

Authors all have at least one thing in common, which is that when we finally get finished copies of our books, we get giddy as kindergartners. We touch them constantly, and build towers with them, and take pictures of our...

Quotes by Jeff Giles

I have copies of the books my grandfather illustrated for Scribner's in each house. I read those books all the time.

Quotes by Jamie Wyeth

'The Tin Drum' is one of my favourite books of all time - I've probably got 12 or 15 copies with different covers, different translations - but it's also just about my favourite film.

Quotes by Jamie Hince

I'm not big on reading business books. I get copies of all of them, because people want me to put a comment on the jacket. Every once in a while, I'll get interested and read one all the way through.

Quotes by James Goodnight

I find old copies of National Gallery catalogues, which are written in the dryest possible prose, infinitely soothing.

Quotes by Howard Hodgkin

I wish more people read hard copies of the newspaper and watched the evening news from start to finish.

Quotes by Gwen Ifill

I grew up when comics were only sold in food markets and news stands, so the direct market is vital to me. The best way to make it stronger is if everybody buys my comics in multiple copies before they...

Quotes by Gilbert Hernandez

I know acts and I'm not going to name names but these people sold ten million copies the first time and the second album sells three million and it's considered a failure and they're dropped and that's really a shame.

Quotes by Gerry Beckley

We were at Pye Studios for half an hour so we set the gear up and we did two tracks. A month later we found out it was selling thirty thousand copies a day.

Quotes by Georgie Fame

The goal of reanimation research is not to make perfect living copies of extinct organisms, nor is it meant to be a one-off stunt in a laboratory or zoo. Reanimation is about leveraging the best of ancient and synthetic DNA.

Quotes by George M. Church

I started 'American Born Chinese' as a mini-comic. I would write and draw a chapter, photocopy a hundred or so copies at the corner photocopy store, and then try to sell them on consignment through local comics shops. If I...

Quotes by Gene Luen Yang

With a poetry book I can send 100 copies out to reviewers and other people, and even do it in advance and get their response. It's difficult with iPad: how do you send it out for free, and how do...

Quotes by Felix Dennis

Computers are wasteful of paper and time. Once, we'd get documents with a few errors. Now, people make hundreds of copies until each sheet is flawless and memos are duplicated endlessly. Managers get swamped with emails.

Quotes by Felix Dennis

Cloning is great. If God made the original, then making copies should be fine.

Quotes by Douglas Coupland

Oh yeah - for sure - hardly a week doesn't go by when I don't hear something wonderful that someone has made in some low-budget situation, primarily with a view to selling a few hundred copies at their concerts.

Quotes by David Knopfler

Someone who copies a Van Gogh does not therefore become Van Gogh, and the same would go for Mozart or anyone else who contributed something that was original. Certainly in the way that I described visualizing numbers in abstract, meaningful...

Quotes by Daniel Tammet

I feel that contemporary music, with very few exceptions, is missing the voice. You see an award show, you see a hundred extras on set dancing and special effects, and you don't see that solo voice that was the trademark...

Quotes by Clive Davis

Frequently Asked Questions

What are these copies quotes mainly about?
They're about the business side of creative work, specifically what it takes to sell a huge number of copies of a book or game.
Do the quotes suggest big sales always mean great quality?
Not necessarily, several point out that other factors, like multiplayer features or marketing, can drive huge numbers just as much as storytelling.
Are there quotes about books specifically?
Yes, including thoughts on how bestseller charts are treated as proof of public taste, even when that's debatable; see more in our Book quotes collection.
What about the games industry?
A couple of quotes compare pricing and sales expectations for games against traditional media, questioning if today's numbers still add up the same way.
Who would find this collection useful?
Anyone curious about how creators and executives actually think about audience size, pricing, and success in publishing and gaming.

Curious how creative work turns into a livelihood? Our Business quotes and Copy quotes pages dig further into the industry side of things.