Time & Perspective Quote by Piers Anthony

There is a small, telling contradiction at the heart of Piers Anthony's line: readers are both a drain and a lifeline. He frames them in the language of labor first ("a third of my working time"), the kind of practical, accountantly detail that instantly grounds the sentiment in the lived reality of a working genre novelist. This isn't a lofty communion between author and audience; it's an inbox, a mailbag, a constant hum of expectation that competes with the actual writing.

The intent is partly defensive honesty. Anthony is admitting what polite literary culture often pretends away: fan attention is not pure gratification, it's work. By quantifying it, he subtly asks for empathy from the very people he's addressing, a soft request for boundaries without the rudeness of demanding them. Yet he can't end on irritation. The pivot to "but I love and need them all" is not just courtesy; it's an admission of the ecosystem. Popular writers, especially those who built careers on long-running series and devoted communities, don't simply create in isolation. They are sustained by feedback loops: sales, letters, conventions, the sense of being read right now.

Subtextually, the line captures an older model of author-reader intimacy - pre-social media, but already edging toward the modern problem of access. Anthony's readers aren't an abstract "public"; they're individuals who can reach him and expect a reply. The quote works because it refuses a clean moral. He doesn't sanctify the audience or scold them. He reveals dependence with a wince: the same people who steal his hours are the ones who make the hours matter.