I believe my publisher has shown a great deal of faith in me over a lot of years but I'm not prepared to be so arrogant to say that the long-term literary value of my work would compensate them for a financial failure. ↗
It's good to have it over with. I worked on it a long time, and I didn't know what people were going to think of it. Would people like it? Would they buy it? So far it's been doing pretty well. ↗
I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near. ↗