QUOTATIONS

Quotes for Writers on Rejection

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Rejection is a big part of the writing life. That's why there are so many quotes for writers about being turned down! If you've suffered rejection, you'll appreciate these quotations by famous authors about rejections from literary agents and editors.

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"If you're not failing now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative."

—Woody Allen

"I discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, 'To hell with you.'"

—Saul Bellow

"I could write an entertaining novel about rejection slips, but I fear it would be overly long."

—Louise Brown

"Every rejection is incremental payment on your dues that in some way will be translated back into your work."

—James Lee Burke

"I used to save all my rejection slips because I told myself, one day I'm going to autograph these and auction them. And then I lost the box."

—James Lee Burke

"I've been reading reviews of my stories for twenty-five years, and can't remember a single useful point in any of them, or the slightest good advice."

—Anton Chekhov

"I tell writers to keep reading, reading, reading. Read widely and deeply. And I tell them not to give up even after getting rejection letters. And only write what you love."

—Anita Diamant

"No one put a gun to your head and ordered you to become a writer. One writes out of his own choice and must be prepared to take the rough spots along the road with a certain equanimity, though allowed some grinding of the teeth."

—Stanley Ellin

"Failure is success if we learn from it."

—Malcolm Forbes

"A good many young writers make the mistake of including a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. That is too much of a temptation to the editor."

—Ring Lardner

"As a writer, the worst thing you can do is work in an environment of fear of rejection."

—Carol Leifer

"Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement."

—C. S. Lewis

"I got a rejection letter from an editor at HarperCollins, who included a report from his professional reader. This report shredded my first-born novel, laughed at my phrasing, twirled my lacy pretensions around and gobbed into the seething mosh pit of my stolen clichés. As I read the report, the world became very quiet and stopped rotating. What poisoned me was the fact that the report's criticisms were all absolutely true. The sound of my landlady digging in the garden got the world moving again. I slipped the letter into the trash...knowing I'd remember every word."

—David Mitchell

"I had immediate success in the sense that I sold something right off the bat. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake and it really wasn't. I have drawers full of—or I did have—drawers full of rejection slips."

—Fred Saberhagen

"Was I bitter? Absolutely. Hurt? You bet your sweet ass I was hurt. Who doesn't feel a part of their heart break at rejection. You ask yourself every question you can think of, what, why, how come, and then your sadness turns to anger. That's my favorite part. It drives me, feeds me, and makes one hell of a story."

—Jennifer Salaiz

"I wrote poems in my corner of the Brooks Street station. I sent them to two editors who rejected them right off. I read those letters of rejection years later and I agreed with those editors."

—Carl Sandburg

"An absolutely necessary part of a writer's equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself."

—Irwin Shaw

"I think that you have to believe in your destiny; that you will succeed, you will meet a lot of rejection and it is not always a straight path, there will be detours—so enjoy the view."

—Michael York