John irving on not finishing books (and why reviewers are angry)

"Grown-ups shouldn't finish books they're not enjoying. When you're no longer a child, and you no longer live at home, you don't have to finish everything on your plate. One reward of leaving school is that you don't have to finish books you don't like. You know, if I were a critic, I'd be angry and vicious too; it makes poor critics angry and vicious - to have to finish all those books they're not enjoying. What a silly job criticism is! What unnatural work it is! It is certainly not work for a grown-up."

From The Paris Review - The Art of Fiction no. 93 (1986)

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