Life & Wisdom Quote by Donald E. Westlake

Westlake is mourning an ecosystem, not indulging nostalgia. The bite in his phrasing is practical: magazines were "farm teams" and "lures" at once, meaning they trained writers while also habituating audiences to seek out new voices. The industry didn’t merely publish stories; it manufactured readership. When he says the magazines ranged "from pulp to slick", he’s pointing to a ladder with many rungs - low-prestige markets that paid little but taught speed, structure, and audience appetite; glossy venues that conferred legitimacy and broader reach. Together they formed a circulation system for talent.

The subtext is a warning about the hidden infrastructure of culture. Westlake implies that craft is not just personal genius but reps: deadlines, editors who cut mercilessly, the humiliation and instruction of rejection slips, the incremental climb from unknown to bankable. That’s why "hundreds of short stories every month" matters. Volume creates opportunity, and opportunity creates diversity in style, background, and risk tolerance.

"Most of the doors for new people have been sealed" lands like an indictment of consolidation. Fewer outlets means fewer editorial tastes, fewer paychecks, fewer second chances. The phrase also exposes a quiet class issue: if you can’t earn while you learn, you need savings, connections, or a patron to survive the apprenticeship. Westlake, a working pro who came up through those exact venues, is documenting how a culture that once subsidized experimentation has shifted toward gatekeeping by scarcity - with consequences for what kinds of stories get told, and who gets to tell them.