Kluge Worte von Clark Ashton Smith

But I have one remark to make on publishers in general: Their principal defense is that they must give the public what it wants – but are they not in many ways responsible for the taste of the public – are not they with the periodicals, theaters, etc., largely the creators of the current depraved standards? If all were to band together to refuse the publication of the torrents of wish-wash – and worse – that are rotting the appreciation of anything better in so many minds – could they not educate their readers (and audiences) to something higher? Most people are neither better nor worse, mentally or any other way, than their environment – and literature and its counterparts are a potent part of environment.

Aus einem Brief an George Sterling vom 12. April 1912

(In: David E. Schultz & S.T. Joshi (Hg.): The Shadow of the Unattained. The Letters of George Sterling and Clark Ashton Smith. S. 42.)