Life & Wisdom Quote by Robert B. Parker

Meritocracy is a comforting fairy tale writers tell themselves so they can keep typing. Parker starts with that bedtime story - good work rises, bad work sinks - then yanks it away mid-sentence. That self-correction ("Well, no.") is the whole point: he’s not being coy, he’s staging the moment an experienced professional catches himself trying to believe in a just marketplace.

The wit is blunt and workmanlike, very Parker. He’s not doing literary-theory gymnastics; he’s describing the ecosystem he actually lived in: commercial publishing, genre fiction, reviews, book racks, and the messy reality that popularity is not a synonym for quality. The subtext isn’t bitterness so much as clarity. Parker wrote crime novels that were both accessible and sharp; he knew the difference between craft and prestige, between readers and gatekeepers, between what sells this week and what lasts.

That last clause - "cause some people like it" - is doing double duty. It deflates the snob’s assumption that "bad" is an objective category and punctures the idealist’s belief that audiences naturally reward excellence. Taste is fragmented, marketing is loud, and cultural churn is relentless. Parker’s intent is pragmatic: if you’re writing, don’t wait for the universe to validate you. Build the best sentences you can, accept that the world will sometimes cheer the sloppy stuff, and keep your ego from hitching a ride on the sales numbers.