Greg Egan Quotes

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

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.

Mrs Thicknesse and I agreed that a business of his own was probably the only solution for him because he was obviously unemployable.

Well, these days, if you're away five years, you might not be able to get back.

Writing was something I always liked, but it wasn't a career until I was laid off from my executive position in my 30s. I started a website because I was bored, unemployed and angry.

When I first quit my day job, I was terrified. I called my editors and said I'm trying to make a go of this, and they threw every contract at me they could. And for two years, I had a book or an anthology out every month.

Motherhood definitely took the focus off of my work. And I didn't mind. I had a few panics when I thought that if I wanted to work I couldn't get a job anymore and then I would get one once in a while and it would make me feel better.

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

I was freelancing for years in Cork and around. I also wrote freelance pieces for 'The Irish Times.'

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

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

I wanted to find something I could do at home. I sat down with a friend and made a list of all the things I could try, and one of them was writing a novel.

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

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

I didn't think being a writer was a fancy thing. It was a job like any other job, except apparently you could do it at home.

When we moved to Australia in 2008, I decided to try to live off the writing.

I know I did the right thing by taking time off to raise my son. But it also came at a price. I turned down many opportunities over the years because I didn't want to leave him for long periods of time. And in Hollywood, as in any business, the calls stop coming when you don't answer.

Yes. I am writing full-time. Which is strange. It feels like not having a job.

The opportunity to write for the 'L.A. Weekly' has been one of the better breaks that has come my way in a long time.

People in academia and industry are not accustomed to people who have long lapses in their careers.

There are any number of reasons many talented people, particularly women, leave their careers for a period of time.

In 1975, I quit my tenure, and we moved from Ann Arbor to New Hampshire. It was daunting to pay for groceries and the mortgage by freelance writing - but it worked, and I loved doing it.

After I left the 'Daily Show,' I was kind of sitting out for five years. I know what it's like to not be able to have that platform for my voice the way I want it.

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.