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The strongest of all warriors are these two: Time and Patience. – Leo Tolstoi
Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. - Napolean Hill
Peaceful warriors...do not seek fulfillment, but wait with open arms to welcome all things. - Dan Millman
Patience and time do more than strength or passion. - Jean de La Fontaine
Our patience will achieve more than our force. - Edmund Burke
He that can have patience can have what he will. - Benjamin Franklin
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
- John Quincy Adams
(Quotes compiled on Egreenway.com)
Patience has been on my mind a lot because I am in the pitching stage with my first novel, Couple Friends. Of course I want an agent to run screaming through the streets, "OH MY GOD THIS IS SO FANTASTIC! THIS IS THE BEST MANUSCRIPT I HAVE EVER READ! EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH THIS PROJECT IS GOING TO BECOME A MILLIONAIRE!!!"
After said running in the street screaming time is over, I would love to be flown on a private jet to have lunch with the agent and publisher at a swanky restaurant in the heart of Manhattan and at the table next to ours, my career idol Nora Ephron will be enjoying a salad and glass of white wine and lean over to say, "I read your manuscript, and it's brilliant. I want to make a movie out of it." Don't ask me how she already has read it; she just has.
I know that this is the most absolutely ridiculous scene ever, but that's okay. It's my fantasy, not yours. But the reality is, I am playing the waiting game and trying to keep myself insanely busy so I DON'T fret and be consumed with self-doubt and move to a beach and open a tiki bar because I think I'll never become a published author.
So, I will keep looking up quotes about patience whenever panic sets in. I will keep editing my second novel so I can have not one but TWO manuscripts ready to go. I will continue to write my first nonfiction book that I plan to self-publish in April. And I will believe that there is an agent that WILL fall in love with my novel, minus the running in the streets part (but that would be pretty cool, right?!).