Heinrich Boll Quotes

I always feel freelance writers are leading a heroic life. I think that is the real writer's life. On the other hand, it's good to have another job. It gives you something to do.

I was like, 'I don't get out of bed for less than $21 an hour!'... I temped at Chanel and the New York Stock Exchange, and then I'd come home and write.

If you're a freelance writer and aren't used to being ignored, neglected, and generally given short shrift, you must not have been in the business very long.

The life of the professional writer - like that of any freelance, whether she be a plumber or a podiatrist - is predicated on willpower. Without it there simply wouldn't be any remuneration, period.

I'm a freelance writer, and I work alone at a big desk in the living room of my apartment. There are many days when I don't utter a single word to anyone but my husband.

The minimum wage is not something that you want to stay on as a permanent basis. For example, if you have a minimum wage job, you don't stay there 20 or 30 years. You don't put your children through college working on minimum wage.

I like the idea of being a working writer, not of saying that it's going to take me 30 years to write my magnum opus.

I've supported myself by writing since 1992, and I'm probably very nearly unemployable by now because employers are likely to be put off by the long gap.

My total year's income from working as hard as I possibly could from writing went from like $30 one year to about $70 the next year. And it made me realize that maybe you couldn't really pay the rent that way.

This sounds like a cliche, but I always wanted to write. After college, I did some writing and realized very quickly that it's hard to make a living as a writer. At that point, I was more interested in fiction writing.

I was a temp for three years in New York when I was auditioning; when I was cast in 'Mad Men,' I was still a temp. I'm good at making copies; I'm good at typing things. I'm good at killing the day and making it look like I'm doing something.

I love those stretches where I've just been a writer - when I haven't been doing Internet start-ups - where I pretty much eliminate meetings from my life.

Being a professional writer is not an easy way to make a living.

A man who writes for a living does not have to go anywhere in particular, and he could rarely afford to if he wanted.

I was studying to be a dental hygienist and working as a dental assistant. I met a photographer and decided to put my job on hold for just a summer to begin modeling.

It's fun being paid to read stuff and air your opinion about it - pretty much a dream job for a writer.

I was a writer for hire. I wrote to pay the bills.

I got a lovely check today from being a writer that I earned by sitting at home. That's rewarding.

The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

I treat my writing like a day job, like my main job, even if for many years I was doing other jobs to pay the bills. I worked as a copy editor. I was a medical guinea pig. I was an eBay power seller of ladies' handbags. I was an assistant to a bookie at the horse races. I bartended. I did anything I could to make ends meet.

My generation was maybe the last in which you could set up shop as a writer and hope to make a living at it.

I had temping jobs also. I liked the flexibility. There was no asking for time off; you just didn't work.

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government job.

I spent years commuting into London when I was working as a temp, and I hated the monotony of it.

I freelanced for the 'Boston Phoenix.'