Mary Gaitskill Quotes

If you give up at the first rejection or the first bad review, you will never make it in publishing.

There are two wrong reactions to a rejection slip: deciding it's a final judgment on your story and/or talent, and deciding it's no judgment on your story and/or talent.

Being brave is what led to three rejections from Yale Law School before being accepted. It led to losing my 2010 race for U.S. Congress, and another failed bid for public office in 2013, this time for public advocate of New York City.

The early days were really difficult because it was constant no's, I didn't have an agent. I always knew that I had something to offer, but it just felt like I could never get someone to give me a chance.

You deal with failure - strike, strike, strike - all the time. Acting is like that. You have to have a very thick skin in a way - your hair is too dark, you're too ugly for the part, your audition wasn't good.

When suddenly you seem to lose all you thought you had gained, do not despair. You must expect setbacks and regressions. Don't say to yourself "All is lost. I have to start all over again." This is not true. What you have gained you have gained....When you return to the the road, you return to the place where you left it, not to where you started.

What's important is not the accolades and memories of success but the way you respond when opportunities are denied.

Each failure to sell will increase your chances for success at your next attempt.

I was turned down by every record label in L.A. Perseverance is three quarters of the game. Talent's only a quarter. Being able to withstand the word 'no' over and over can build you a pretty tough skin. I knew if I just kept at it, at the very least I'd get better at my craft.

I've had a lot of failures as well and rejection. As actor, it's actually mostly rejection but people think it's mostly success because they only see your successes - the films that get made.

To ward off a feeling of failure, she joked that she could wallpaper her bathroom with rejection slips, which she chose not to see as messages to stop, but rather as tickets to the game.

My advice is that if you really want to be a screenwriter, get out here and be ready to take no for an answer many times until you find your way through it and are fortunate enough to get something made.

When you go out and audition, you're going to hear a lot of 'No's.' As weird as it may sound, you almost have to love hearing 'no' because you're going to hear it way more than you hear 'yes'.

It doesn't matter how many times you fail. It doesn't matter how many times you almost get it right. No-one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you. All that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.

Even the losers get lucky sometimes. Even the losers keep a little bit of pride. They get lucky sometimes.

When I was going into acting, my mom said, "You can't let that faze you. And if it does faze you, if you start getting upset if people say no, that's it - pull the plug."

Every time you get rejected, say: 'Next!'

You have to be determined, and be able to accept, 'No.' I've heard, 'No,' a thousand times, and I've heard, 'Yes,' a handful of times.

I never would've tried YouTube if I hadn't had so many doors slammed in my face.

I still take losing out very seriously. But it inspires me that much more to move on. Quite often in my business, it's not the most talented people that succeed. Because they don't necessarily have the tenacity to deal with rejection.

I wasn't accepted the first time I tried to get into drama school. I said, 'I'll give this one more shot... and if that doesn't work, I won't bang my head against this painful brick wall.'

There's always gonna be setbacks; there's always gonna be knockdowns. There's always gonna be people telling you, 'Hey, you suck!'

There are no guarantees in the music field. There's a lot of rejection, a lot of criticism and a lot of disappointment. You have to be prepared for that. And after 1973, it just wasn't happening for me.

You definitely get the answer 'no' more times in this business than you do 'yes.' It's what you do with those 'nos' that makes your success either great or not.

As an actor, it is okay to fall and get up. Then you can give your best. Sometimes audiences don't receive it well, but you have to take it in the right sense. It is part and parcel of being in the industry.