Janet Fitch Quotes

I have been rejected 120 times, probably because I didn't write the right book.

I got nice rejections explaining that historical fiction was a difficult sell. But I kept trying.

I became a connoisseur of that nasty thud a manuscript makes when it comes through the letter box.

My first novel was rejected by some of the most eminent publishers in the world. Starting again was a real wrench.

I had left the music industry at the end of 2001, after 10 years, and had spent three years writing every single day - producing two unpublished novels, one abandoned novel, and three unproduced screenplays. The word 'no' and I were on more than nodding terms. The word 'no' and I were talking about going on holiday together.

I'm talking to anyone who has been dumped - have not gotten the job you really wanted or have received those horrible rejection letters from grad school. You know, the disappointment of losing, or not getting something you badly want. When that happens, show what you are made of.

After you do this for a while, you get used to things not working the way you want them to. There's a job you want, and you don't get it. There's a movie you'd like to get made, and it doesn't get made. You become inured to it.

...the vital point to remember is that the swine who just sent your pearl of a story back with nothing but a coffee-stain and a printed rejection slip can be wrong. You cannot take it for granted that he is wrong, but you have an all-important margin of hope that might be enough to keep you going.

For the longest time, I was auditioning, getting called back, and I had a long string of things not going my way. I thought, 'Maybe this is never going happen. Maybe I'll never book a commercial.'

As for advice for aspiring authors, the best I can give is to be brave. It sounds like a simple enough thing, but it's not. Rejection is such an integral part of this journey, and it never goes away.

I've never actually even contemplated writing a book or having a book.

Advice to beginning SF writers? Write a lot, finish what you write, and when it's done, keep sending it out for quite awhile.

I like to joke that I probably hold the world record for rejection letters. Yes, the truth is that I was fed up of being rejected repeatedly, and self-publication was an act of defiance at traditional publishing. But life works in strange ways.

I wanted to become a writer. I enjoyed reading as a child.

There are always moments of despair when you get close to jobs and lose them at the last second. It feels like getting punched in the stomach. You feel like, 'Why do I do this?' Then you go to bed, get up the next day and forget about 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.

Writing a novel is like knocking on a door that will never open. You are so desperate to get in, you will say or do anything. You feel: please take my novel.

I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday.

I tried to get into the National Youth Theatre and didn't, and I tried to get into drama school and didn't, and then I went to university and was really delighted that I went there. I think having the word 'no' can be quite creative.

I had thought of writing, actually, and that later on I'd be a novelist.

The starkest rejection letter might be followed by a million-dollar advance. Don't let rejection start to look the same as failure.

I have written my own screen version of Pern, but had no buyers yet.

My dream was, and always had been, to write a book. To be a writer.

A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

You go up for hundreds, thousands of roles, and you get told no, no, no, so many times.