Terry Pratchett Quotes

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.

I think it's always wrong of writers to make too much of the pains of their labors, because most people have much worse jobs and suffer such indignities and hardships.

I had a very high opinion of my father's judgement of things and he said, "You better get a job that pays the bills because a writer doesn't make any money. If possible, get a job that allows you to write in your spare time."

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 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.'

To be able to create a character and tell a story is a crazy way to make a living. I feel so lucky to be able to do this.

I always say to my students, 'If you can do anything other than writing and be happy, then you should.'

The average career span for a TV writer is 11 years. The only other thing I could find that had the same career span was a police dog.

Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it's always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins.

I think that the Detroit auto industry is important to the United States. It's important for hundreds of thousands of Americans who have their jobs as a result.

You don't want to look too chic at a Washington party or people will think you don't have a job worth losing.

The only pressure is the pressure I put on myself, that's up to be I guess to mitigate that. I think there's always pressure that you make the right choice for the next film. You don't know what the outcome is gonna be, there's always potential to find length to your career as well. Now I'm so far from any other job skills that if I don't make movies.

There are very few things I would love to do other than a life of writing, and I think being a singer-songwriter and being an anthropologist are the two other things I can imagine doing.

We [actors] are so lucky to do jobs that fulfill us and make us happy. We don't go to work thinking okay, we're working to put food in the fridge. We are doing that too, but we're working because we love what we do.

I think a lot of the Trump supporters think that the job situation is not good.

I think the issue will come up after the election of the new Tory leader. They may well decide to call an election. What the British people need now is stability. Stability to retain their jobs, stability to protect those working conditions, and we need a plan from this government now on how they're going to approach the negotiations for leaving the European Union before they invoke Article 50.

Regardless of whether or not the producers think that there are five other people waiting for the job, the one that is there needs to be treated as if they are the only person for the job in that moment.

I think it is our job, as writers, to be epic. Epic and tiny at the same time. If you're going to be a fiction writer, why not take on something that means something. In doing this, you must understand that within that epic structure it is the tiny story that is possibly more important.

At the end of the day, I think the only way to do the kind of job a writer does is push everything aside and just ultimately sit down and do the work.

The one thing an aspiring writer must understand is that it's hard. If you think it's not hard, you're not doing it right.

If you really want to engage in policy activity, don't make that your vocation. Make it your avocation. Get a job. Get a secure base of income. Otherwise, you're going to get corrupted and destroyed.

I just think we've had years and years of allowing our jobs to be dissipated in America, and there's no reason for it.

I think being a writer was a crappy job when you just had typewriters. It was crappy when we just had ink and paper. And it's sort of crappy now. It's always just you and the page. That doesn't change.

I received a letter from a lad asking me for an easy berth. To this I replied: You cannot be an editor; do not try the law; do not think of the ministry; let alone all ships and merchandise; abhor politics; don't practice medicine; be not a farmer or a soldier or a sailor; don't study, don't think. None of these are easy. O, my son, you have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in it, and that is the grave!

I think it's so incredibly special to be able to try to recapitulate that feeling I had when I was sitting in that theater, as a 7-year-old. It's an extraordinary job. I'm incredibly lucky.