Bissell: My short stories still get rejected constantly. My magazine pieces get killed. The writer’s motto - the creator’s motto - should be: “Failure: It’s what’s for dinner.” How you respond to failure is the real measure of an artist, and this means nurturing the violently arrogant and overly confident monster that lurks deep inside all of us. But you have to keep that maniacal bastard out of all polite company. You feed him and nurture him and draw strength from him, but you never, ever let him out, get water on him, or feed him after midnight...
