No author dislikes to be edited as much as he dislikes not to be published.

Lynes’s aphorism captures a familiar tension in literary production: writers often resent editorial intervention—cuts, rewrites, or fact-checking that can feel like an assault on voice and authority—yet they resent even more the alternative of being ignored or left unpublished. The line wryly acknowledges that publication is a form of validation and access to readers that most authors ultimately prize above complete control. It also implies a pragmatic bargain at the heart of professional writing: editorial shaping is the price of entry into print culture, and the author’s ego must negotiate with the realities of gatekeeping, standards, and collaboration.