Life & Wisdom Quote by Piers Anthony

Rejection, in Piers Anthony's formulation, isn’t tragedy or conspiracy; it’s data. The line aims to puncture the romantic myth that editors are blind gatekeepers who routinely miss brilliance. Anthony’s “If every editor turns you down” sets a high bar: not one cranky reader, not one market mismatch, but a full chorus of no. At that point, he suggests, the most rational response isn’t righteous fury but a “second look” at the work itself.

The subtext is part craft lesson, part ego check. Anthony is speaking from inside the factory: publishing isn’t a pure meritocracy, but it’s also not a lottery where talent is endlessly unlucky. “Maybe” and “just in case” are doing quiet rhetorical work. He doesn’t claim editors are infallible; he leaves room for bad timing, genre fads, or a manuscript that’s simply ahead of its moment. Yet the sentence still nudges writers toward humility and revision, the unglamorous engine of getting published.

Context matters: Anthony came up through mid-century genre publishing, where editors were often practical curators of readable product, not academic tastemakers. In that environment, repeated rejection typically signals something concrete: pacing, clarity, voice, stakes, or a mismatch between promise and execution. The intent isn’t to shame writers; it’s to redirect their energy from grievance to leverage. You can’t control the gatekeepers, but you can control the pages. That’s the bracing comfort hidden inside his caution.