Words of Wisdom — February 15, 2015

Saul Bellow: Rejections Are Not Altogether a Bad Thing

“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.'”

bigthinkeditor

Saul Bellow (1915-2005) was an acclaimed Canadian-born American writer. During his lifetime, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize for Literature, the National Medal of Arts, and three National Book Awards for fiction. An influential and prolific author, some of his most famous works include The Adventures of Augie March, Henderson the Rain King, andSeize the Day.

“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.'”

Quoted in “Feeling Rejected? Join Updike, Mailer, Oates…” by Barbara Bauer and Robert F. Moss, The New York Times (21 July 1985), section 7, page 1, column 1 [Wikiquote]

Photo credit: MDCarchives via Wikicommons / CC BY-SA 3.0

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