Rejection Letter Quotes

#1. I actually started out as a poet in high school. I published in small literary magazines for probably about ten years. I entered the Yale Younger Poet contest every year, until I was too old to be a younger poet, and I never got more than a form rejection letter from them.

L.E. Modesitt Jr.

#2. I wrote short stories for seven years and used to mail them out. You couldn't send them by e-mail. I called them manila boomerangs. I'd seal the self-addressed stamped envelope inside an envelope and I'd mail it off, and it would come back six weeks later with a rejection letter in it.

Jess Walter

#3. This is a stamina game, so don't despair if you run down a blind alley and have to start over, or if you get another rejection letter. Every successful writer has gone through that, but they kept writing and didn't quit until they made it happen.

Tim Maleeny

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

Darin Strauss

#5. I know that when a door closes, it can feel like all doors are closing. A rejection letter can feel like everyone will reject us. But a closed door leads to clarity. It's really an arrow. Because we cannot go through that door, we will go somewhere else. That somewhere else is your true life.

Tama J. Kieves

#6. A good play is a good play. If you want to chalk up your rejection letters to the fact that you're a woman, that's your choice. But often you get a rejection letter because your play isn't ready. Or the time isn't ready for your play. And that has nothing to do with gender.

Jane Anderson

#7. The three secrets of getting published:

1. Never give up!
2. Never give up!
3. Never give up!

It doesn't matter how many rejection letters you get. Remember, you only need one acceptance letter.

Marshall S. Thomas

#8. A nasty letter or a sarcastic one can make you righteously angry, but what can you do about a polite letter of rejection? Nothing, really, except cry.

E.L. Konigsburg