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Dean Koontz, afterward to his short story collection Strange Highways, Warner Books Inc. (1995) pp. 556-557
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Most literary agents advise young writers to avoid writing short stories. [...] If Edgar Allen Poe were alive today, his agent would constantly slapping him upside the head with tightly rolled copies of his brilliant short stories and novelettes, yelling, "Full-length novels, you moron! Pay attention! What's the matter with you -- are you shooting heroin or something? Write for the market! No more of this middlelength 'Fall of the House of Usher' crap!"

— Dean Koontz

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Most literary agents advise young writers to avoid writing short stories. [...] If Edgar Allen Poe were alive today, his agent would constantly slapping him upside the head with tightly rolled copies of his brilliant short stories and novelettes, yelling, "Full-length novels, you moron! Pay attention! What's the matter with you -- are you shooting heroin or something? Write for the market! No more of this middlelength 'Fall of the House of Usher' crap!"" in the context of "Dean Koontz, afterward to his short story collection Strange Highways, Warner Books Inc. (1995) pp. 556-557" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Edgar Allan Poe" (Quotes about Poe) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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#Edgar Allan Poe#stories#short#middlelength#constantly#novelettes#fulllength#brilliant#attention#something#literary#slapping
Edgar Allan Poe

About Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe, born Edgar Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author, a part of literary studies and was also considered by some peoples both the central and most major figure of the American Romanticism, and a part of the American literature. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States, and of American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story, and considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.