“Certainly no one could have predicted what has happened. Back then, after 121 others had turned this book down, one lone editor offered a standard $3,000 advance. He said the book forced him to decide what he was in publishing for, and added that although this was almost certainly the last payment, I shouldn't be discouraged. Money wasn't the point with a book like this.”

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Afterword (1984)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Certainly no one could have predicted what has happened. Back then, after 121 others had turned this book down, one lon…" by Robert M. Pirsig?
Robert M. Pirsig photo
Robert M. Pirsig 164
American writer and philosopher 1928–2017

Related quotes

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis photo

“One of the things I like about publishing is that you don't promote the editor — you promote the book and the author.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994) public figure, First Lady to 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy

Interview with Publishers Weekly (19 April 1993)

Jerome David Salinger photo
Arun Shourie photo

“When challenged why he had written so little, he fired back: "Moses wrote one book. Then what did he do?"”

Sidney Morgenbesser (1921–2004) American philosopher

The Independent, The Independent, Professor Sidney Morgenbesser: Philosopher celebrated for his withering New York Jewish humour http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-sidney-morgenbesser-550224.html, 6 August 2004. The Times, Sidney Morgenbesser: Erudite and influential American linguistic philosopher with the analytical acuity of Spinoza and the blunt wit of Groucho Marx https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sidney-morgenbesser-5cz8gg8qfvm, September 8, 2004.

Pearl S.  Buck photo
Robert M. Pirsig photo

“A culture-bearing book, like a mule, bears the culture on its back. No one should sit down to write one deliberately. Culture-bearing books occur almost accidentally, like a sudden change in the stock market.”

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Afterword (1984)
Context: A culture-bearing book, like a mule, bears the culture on its back. No one should sit down to write one deliberately. Culture-bearing books occur almost accidentally, like a sudden change in the stock market. There are books of high quality that are an part of the culture, but that is not the same. They are a part of it. They aren't carrying it anywhere. They may talk about insanity sympathetically, for example, because that's the standard cultural attitude. But they don't carry any suggestion that insanity might be something other than sickness or degeneracy.

Sydney Smith quote: “He was a one-book man. Some men have only one book in them; others, a library.”
Sydney Smith photo

“He was a one-book man. Some men have only one book in them; others, a library.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Vol. I, ch. 11
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)

Ben Aaronovitch photo
Edward St. Aubyn photo

Related topics