Life & Wisdom Quote by Dan Simmons

There’s a faintly rueful pragmatism baked into Simmons’s line: art may be romantic, but publishing is a relationship business, and relationships punish flakiness. The phrase “great career move” drags the lofty mythology of the solitary novelist down to earth. He’s not talking about inspiration; he’s talking about incentives, trust, and the quiet arithmetic of attention in a crowded market.

“Create a readership” is tellingly active. Readers don’t simply appear; they’re built through repetition, a recognizable voice, and the implicit promise that if you invest time (and money) in a writer, the writer will keep showing up. Then comes the sting: “in effect, abandon them.” That little qualifier matters. Simmons isn’t only condemning overt desertion, like disappearing for a decade. He’s also pointing at softer betrayals: radical genre pivots without a bridge, sequels that never arrive, books that feel like contractual obligations rather than convictions. Even if the author tells themselves they’re evolving, the reader experiences it as being left mid-conversation.

The subtext is less scolding than wary: audience loyalty is fragile and memory is short. This is especially pointed in modern genre ecosystems, where fan communities form around series, shared worlds, and dependable cadence. Simmons, who’s worked across horror, SF, and historical fiction, understands both the freedom and the cost of reinvention. The line is a reminder that “following your muse” and “keeping your readers” aren’t moral choices; they’re strategic trade-offs. In an attention economy, abandonment is rarely dramatic. It’s just silence long enough for people to stop listening.