Every week, I’ll put up a quotation related to writing or creation and tell you a little bit about the person who said it. I’ll try to vary the speakers as much as possible.
“You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.” - Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was a science-fiction author of over 500 books. He also wrote countless short stories. He was the original creator of robotics, including the three laws of robotics which achieved a great deal of popularity. He is considered to be one of the “Big Three”, masters of hard science fiction, the other two being Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Robert A. Heinlein (author of Stranger in a Strange Land).
His most famous works include “I, Robot” and “The Bicentennial Man”, both short stories. The latter was later turned into a novel, and then into a film. “I, Robot” is a more famous movie, but the script was not loyal to the short story and the whole theme of robots overthrowing society was in fact exactly the opposite of what Asimov tried to do in his stories. The film contains similarities to two other short stories of Asimov, namely “Robot Dreams” and “Lost Little Robot”. (Wikipedia)
(I found the quotation via @TheBookDoctors on Twitter.)
The quote is a great reminder of how hard we all have to work if we want our stories to get out to the public.
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming by!
ReplyDeleteIt took me a very long time to realise how important persistence is. It's amazing how many people still don't realise that hard work makes success more often than occasional skill/talent.