Tips for writers seeking publishing

“There is no such thing as failure, only feedback”

“The first sign of a nervous breakdown is when you start thinking your work is terribly important.”

"This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'Not at this address'. Just keep looking for the right address." -Barbara Kingsolver

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

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." -Albert Einstein

"Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself." -Harlan Ellison

"The only time to believe any kind of rating is when it shows you at the top." -Bob Hope

"The novelist must be his own most harsh critic and also his own most loving admirer and about both he must say nothing." -Angus Wilson

"It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly." -C. J. Cherryh

"It's none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way." -Ernest Hemingway

"You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money's in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed." -Larry Niven

"Only self-educated is educated. Others are merely taught." -Erno Paasilinna

"It is my contention that a really great novel is made with a knife and not a pen. A novelist must have the intestinal fortitude to cut out even the most brilliant passage so long as it doesn't advance the story." -Frank Yerby

"Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the yard and shot it." -Truman Capote

"Writing a book is a adventure. To begin with it is a toy and amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him out to the public." -Winston Churchill