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Art & Creativity Quote by Caroline B. Cooney

"I decided to write short stories because they got rejected quicker"

About this Quote

Rejection is usually the part writers sand down in public; Caroline B. Cooney puts it front and center, then flips it into a strategy. The line lands because it treats the literary marketplace like a bureaucracy with a stopwatch: if you know the system will say no, at least make it efficient. That’s not self-pity. It’s a grim little productivity hack, delivered with the kind of seasoned humor that only comes from surviving the slush pile long enough to laugh at it.

The specific intent is disarming candor. Cooney frames a creative choice (short stories) not as lofty artistic calling but as a pragmatic response to gatekeeping. In doing so, she punctures the romantic myth that writers choose forms purely for aesthetic reasons. Editors, submission cycles, and cash flow become part of the craft, whether we admit it or not.

The subtext is more ambitious: she’s describing a way to keep writing under constant negative feedback. Quick rejection is still rejection, but it’s also closure. It frees you to revise, submit again, start the next piece. The joke hides a refusal to let “no” metastasize into paralysis. Short stories aren’t just shorter art; they’re shorter exposure to the industry’s delay-and-doubt machine.

Context matters: Cooney built a long career in popular fiction, including YA, a field where speed, volume, and resilience are survival traits. Her quip reads like advice smuggled as a punchline: if you can’t control the verdict, control the turnaround time, and keep your momentum.

Quote Details

TopicWitty One-Liners
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Cooney, Caroline B. (2026, January 17). I decided to write short stories because they got rejected quicker. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-decided-to-write-short-stories-because-they-got-37840/

Chicago Style
Cooney, Caroline B. "I decided to write short stories because they got rejected quicker." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-decided-to-write-short-stories-because-they-got-37840/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I decided to write short stories because they got rejected quicker." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-decided-to-write-short-stories-because-they-got-37840/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Caroline B. Cooney

Caroline B. Cooney (born May 10, 1947) is a Writer from USA.

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