“People don’t really read your books; they only say they do to keep you from feeling bad.” Mark Twain wrote the line in an 1906 letter to General Frederick D. Grant, explaining his strategy for a Robert Fulton memorial lecture — a spoonful of new information, then a barrel of stories his listeners would swear they’d never heard. The letter itself was printed in the press that year, so unlike most Twain lines making the rounds, this one is soundly attributed.