Courtney A. Kemp Quotes

At this stage, my chief professional goal is simply to keep on writing and making a living at it.

My aunt could never understand how writing could be a full-time job. She'd keep asking when I'd get a real job!

I always loved writing, but never considered that I could do it professionally.

I've been writing full-time since I was 23.

Somebody's always getting me to come lecture to their writing class, and I don't talk about writing at all, I talk about the business of making a living at this racket.

I don't teach writing classes anymore, and I'm really glad I don't, because I would feel very strange about telling people, 'Go out there and be a writer, and make a living from it.'

The idea that you could make a living from writing always thrilled me.

I may not have become a good writer, but I managed to make a living out of writing.

I've always liked to write, but I never thought I could make a career out of it.

When I was a screenwriter, I was doing it for mercenary reasons.

I've been a writer for 42 years and, yes, it is a full time job for me. Not a hobby, but serious work.

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.

But whatever my failure, I have this thing to remember - that I was a pioneer in my profession, just as my grandfathers were in theirs, in that I was the first man in this section to earn his living as a writer.

I tell young people who ask me about a future in writing not to go into it unless they get married to someone rich.

It is indeed difficult to make a living as a writer, and my advice to anyone contemplating a literary career is to have some other trade.

Writing was my first occupation, begun at age 23.

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 didn't really realize that writing... would be fun and people would pay you to do it. Being an astronaut is a glory profession, and so is writing, in a way.

To be a working writer is the holy grail, where you don't have three other jobs on top of that.

I've had a few jobs, but if you want to be a writer, you're better off getting a job that doesn't require that you do anything.

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.

I don't use my writing career as a vehicle to get me acting work or to write roles for myself.

I really think it is possible to make a very nice living by writing and not worrying about anything else.

I never earned a dollar that was not somehow through writing.

I'm still very blunt: If you want to be a writer, get a day job. The fact that I have actually been able to make a living at it is astonishing.