Hanif Kureishi: even the best writers face rejection

As the British Library launches a collection including rejection letters sent to literary greats, Hanif Kureishi explores how self-doubt can be the greatest obstacle to writing

• Quiz: great books that publishers rejected

Of all the questions authors get asked, the most puzzling but persistent is what others might think of what the writer has produced. These potential disapprovers could be the writer’s spouse, family, colleagues, community or neighbours. It doesn’t matter exactly who they are. Yet the question of these opinions is clearly a crucial one for apprentice artists. When they begin to work a chorus of censure and dissent, if not of hate, starts up. The writer becomes inhibited by concerns about the effect his or her words might have. The writer could become anxious, stifled or blocked. They could begin to hate their own work, or become phobic about beginning.

Related: 'It needs more public-spirited pigs': TS Eliot's rejection of Orwell's Animal Farm

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