J. A. Konrath Quotes

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

I'd much rather do an obviously commercial writing project than get a day job.

I'm fortunate in having journalism as a sideline to pay the bills, and I essentially do it in order to take as long as I want with books.

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

Once 'Walk Two Moons' received the Newbery Medal, I decided to write full-time. Partly because there seemed to be an audience out there who wanted to read what I wanted to write, and partly because I could now support myself financially through writing.

If you are making money writing, you are doing great. If you can support yourself writing, you are a success. I don't care if you're writing textbooks or Pulitzer Prize-winning articles for weighty publications of world renown: If you're writing and it's paying the bills, consider yourself a successful writer.

The best piece of advice I ever got from anyone was when Spike Jonze said, 'Take money out of the equation.' And that's actually when Vice started making lots of money. That's when I stopped worrying about money and started worrying about what I wanted to do.

I love writing, and I am one of the people who can do it and make a living.

If I end up having a novel that sells really well and that allows me to pay for health insurance and mortgage without having to work at a day job, that would be great.

I believe that God's dream is that we be successful in our careers, and that we be able to send our kids to college. I don't mean that everyone is going to be rich, and I preach a lot on blooming where you're planted. But I don't have the mindset that money is a bad thing.

Zombie books were going to be my passion projects, but certainly not pay the bills. I thought I was going to have to get a real job on a sitcom or something, and have my zombie books to remind myself I was still a writer at heart. I never thought I could actually pay my bills and write what I wanted.

I've devoted a lot of my time and effort during the past few years to developing my advertising copywriting business to the point of where I can support my family and don't have to depend on writing fiction for my income.

Fortunately, now I've got myself in a position where things are about story and not money. In my earlier career, it was more about getting my foot in the door and to get enough money to live, to be perfectly honest.

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.

I opted for a freelance writing career. I was lucky enough to have the means to do it.

I like the writing life, but it's not something that always makes enough money.

I was 37 years old. I wanted to support myself by writing.

You want to strike that happy medium: the balance of being able to find creative satisfaction in your profession, be able to afford a roof over your head, but still have the freedom to live a relatively normal life.

Because modeling is lucrative, I'm able to save up and be more particular about the acting roles I take.

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 think fiction writers should work. If you have a job and are not living off advances or grants, you never have to make concessions in your writing, ever.

Acting never was about the money for me... Maybe in 10 years, I'll be able to appreciate the fact that I am financially stable and independent and I don't have to make bad choices. I can be very picky.

I hoped to be able to write a novel which would enable me to live on it while I wrote the next.

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

I have a teaching job that allows me to pay the rent and affords me to, frankly, write the books I want to write.