Quotes About Persistence

Psychology is not a place where you get results overnight.

I don't know what psychotherapy does. I have been seeing the same person for 26 years now.

I was crashing with a boyfriend on his couch in Fort Green. At first, I was temping - insurance agencies, nonprofits - and then, in between temping, I was going on job interviews, and I could name 12 publications, some of which no longer exist, that didn't even call me back or interviewed me and had no interest.

They held up 'The Outlaw' for five years. And Howard Hughes had me doing publicity for it every day, five days a week for five years.

People got to know us from hearing us live because there wasn't much publicity or radio airplay for a long time.

I've been embarrassing myself publicly for over 20 years. Why should I stop now?

Pan me, don't give me the part, publish everybody's book but this one and I will still make it!

Send it to someone who can publish it. And if they won't publish it, send it to someone else who can publish it! And keep sending it! Of course, if no one will publish it, at that point you might want to think about doing something other than writing.

It's taken me 15 years to feel I might be able to write and publish short stories, and for the assiduous checks of the industry to allow some through.

No book I publish will be perfect, but I need to feel I've taken it as far as I can.

I don't publish anything I haven't worked over 100 times.

Even if I knew for certain that I would never have anything published again, and would never make another cent from it, I would still keep on writing.

I have always been driven; I've always wanted to be published, and I wanted to make that happen, so I worked very hard. 'Perfectionist' would be a word to describe me.

The best way to learn to write is to read in the genre you might be interested in; then, you need to actually sit down and write. In a lot of cases, the first book you write will not get published. Do not get hung up on that. Start a second book.

My first published book, 'Story of a Girl', was the fourth book I wrote.

Write a million words before thinking about getting published.

After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.

We've been hearing about the death of the novel ever since the day after Don Quixote was published.

If I hadn't been able to get my first book published, I am not sure what I would have done.

I write as a matter of need - seven books and God knows how many short stories before anyone published me.

My first four books were not published because nobody wanted them. They were adult books, not kids' books.

I wrote three books before I got one published. Most writers do. Have faith, and know that with each work you are getting better.

I didn't get one word published until I was well into my 30s. But I always tried.

The conventional wisdom is that authors get only one chance in this world. If your first novel doesn't sell, publishers and bookstores lose interest, and your career stalls, barring an act of God or Oprah.