“You have to be an optimist. No matter how poorly you’ve written your story, there will always be thousands of readers who will consider it nothing short of a masterpiece.
At the same time, you have to be a skeptic. No matter how well you’ve written your story, there will inevitably be thousands of readers who will sincerely believe it’s complete garbage.
And finally, you have to be a realist. No matter how well—or how poorly—you’ve written your story, there will always be millions of people who remain completely indifferent to it. They simply won’t care whether you wrote it or never even started.”