Jamaica Kincaid Quotes

I went to college to study hospitality. I quickly got out of that and realized that what I liked to do was write.

I have an object, a task, let me say the word, a passion. The profession of writing is a violent and almost indestructible one.

I always wanted to write, ever since I was a kid. I started writing at the age of 11. All I wanted to do was finish my education and have my nights free for writing.

It's just a freak of fate that I'm paid to write, not paying to print my own books - but I'd be doing it anyway: it's my life.

Surely it is an odd way to spend your life - sitting alone in a room with a pen in your hand, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, struggling to put words on pieces of paper in order to give birth to what does not exist - except in your head. Why on earth would anyone want to do such a thing? The only answer I have ever been able to come up with is: because you have to, because you have no choice.

For a person whose sole burning ambition is to write - like myself - college is useless beyond the Sophomore year.

I've always just wanted to earn my living by writing. The best thing is to go into my study in the morning and stay there and put words together.

I always wanted to write. While I was on a long surf trip, supporting myself with various day jobs, I was working hard on a novel. My third novel, in fact.

I advise those who want to become writers to study veterinary medicine, which is easier. You don't want to be a writer unless you have no choice - and if you have no choice, good luck to you.

Writing is my number one passion. I've written two novels. I've written a screenplay. I also write short stories and poetry.

I love writing. I like reading, other people, not myself.

Yes, writing is not easy. But can any writer imagine NOT writing?

I'm not mad. I'm a writer.

I want to be a writer, not an engineer who writes books.

I'm a writer. I write not only for a living, I write because I'm a writer.

Well, I have to write. A lot of people forget that. They think I’m sort of crazy baffoon who can’t make up his mind what to do in life

I've always liked to write, but I never thought I could make a career out of it. I went to business school because in the '80, it was the thing to do. I thought that marketing was a way to be creative in business, but quickly learned all creative stuff happens at the ad agency.

If what you want to do is write, then it's madness not to do it.

I never wanted to be an editor. I never wanted to be a boss. I just wanted to write, and it didn't make any difference whether it was fiction or nonfiction or short stories or whatever. I just - that's what I was destined to do.

Like to write? Of course, of course I do. I seem to live while I write - it is life, for me.

Everything in my past, in my training, everything that has been most essential in my activity up to now has made me above all a man who writes, and it is too late for that to change.

All I'm about is just the pen.

I wrote as a teenager, and once I started acting, you know, you're learning lines, you're doing other people's words, it takes up a lot of time. Especially if you're dedicated to what you're doing, you're trying to do a decent job at it. But I would have said to myself, "Write more, please."

Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it.

If you believe you can make a living as a writer, you already have enough ego.