“If you want to talk about destroying natural writing skills, go do a social studies PhD. I completely unlearned how to write.” “ Academic and author Richard Florida.

“I was with you all the way, until you started talking about your new book.” “ Newfoundland publisher Gavin Will tells Florida what every author wants to hear.

“I will have to disappoint you immediately, because I was asked to speak about exciting new initiatives in the Netherlands.” “ Dutch publisher Jacqueline Smit lowers the crowd’s expectations.

Librarian #1: “Do you know what Web 2.0 means?”
Librarian #2: “Yeah. It means we’re going to have to start spending a whole lot more time and money.”

“All publishers should get closer to readers and less close to booksellers.” “ Irish publisher Tony Farmar, not exactly playing to the crowd.

“It’s not as sexy as Sex and the City, but I’d argue that without consciousness, sex isn’t all that fun, anyway.” “ Mark Kingwell on the title of his latest tome, Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City.

“That was interesting and all, but did you notice he didn’t actually say a word about books?” “ An audience member reviews Kingwell’s Saturday speech.

“This is not the salvation for publishing. This is a very fixed idea of what the book is. It’s very limited.” “ Panelist Ben Vershlow comes down on the Kindle.