The People Have Spoken. Those Patience-Trying, Filth-Slinging Whores.
Sorry if this has already been posted somewhere; I couldn't resist.

Courtesy of, oddly enough, my mother:

New York Times article on the Anne Rice-on-Amazon-Debacle, October 11th, 2004: "The People Have Spoken, And Rice Takes Offense", by Sarah Lyall.

Running out of things to iconate? Here, have a telling highlight!

In a telephone interview, Ms. Rice elaborated on the point [her refusal to submit to criticism, constructive or otherwise, from an editor].
"People who find fault and problems with my books tend to say, 'She needs an editor,'" Ms. Rice said. "When a person writes with such care and goes over and over a manuscript and wants every word to be perfect, it's very frustrating."
She added: "When you take home a CD of Pavarotti or Marilyn Horne, you don't want to hear another voice blended in. I feel the same way about Hemingway. If I read it, I don't want to read a new edited version."

And of course everyone's favourite--sing along if you know the words!--

She posted a blistering, 1,200-word defense of her book on the site, laying in to those critics who, she said, were "interrogating this text from the wrong perspective."

I feel sorta warm and fuzzy. Now the whole world can point and laugh like True For-Real Fandom Wankas!