Karen Bender Quotes

I always wrote; my first story was published in the magazine The American Girl when I was 11.

I'd never been published when I was young.

I had been a student in Vienna, and one of the neat little things I had found out was about that zoo. It was a good debut novel for me to have published. I was 26 or 27 when it was published. I already had a kid and would soon have a second.

My literary career kicked off in 1956 when, as a resident of Swansea, South Wales, I published my first novel, 'Lucky Jim.'

At 18, my first short story was published - I was paid a penny a word by a science fiction magazine. I continued to write, and five years later I published my first novel, 'Sweetwater.'

I started in 1957 when I sold my first story to a magazine.

I completed my first novel when I was 19 years old.

I sold my very first novel when I was 24 or 25 years old.

I wrote a novel in my early twenties; I won a high school prize - my short story got published, and I got 50 dollars, which was a huge deal.

I wrote my first full book when I was fourteen, and that was 'Obernewtyn.' It was also the first book I had published. It was accepted by the first publisher I sent it to, and it was short listed for Children's Book of the Year in the older readers category in Australia.

That wasn't a bad price for a first book. My agent upped it as much as possible. I was 27 and had nothing behind me. I was working like a fool to earn a living and pay for my apartment.

I grew up reading Updike. I remember being alarmed to find that he had published short stories by the time he was 22. I think 'Pigeon Feathers' was the first collection of stories I read. Only much later did I discover his non-fiction reviewing and art criticism.

At one point, I had a story accepted at the 'New Yorker,' which sent off weird bells in people when I told them - 'Oh,' they thought, 'now you are a writer' - where I really had been for the last 30-odd years.

I wanted to be a writer for a while. I was an excellent child writer. I won multiple poetry contests. I was published at age three - I think that was more about novelty than my immense talent.

I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.

I began writing seriously in my mid-20s and didn't publish my first book until I was 41.

I published my first poem in 'The Paris Review' in 1980.

I became a copy boy. Not for long. I started writing stories.

By the time I started high school, I knew I wanted to be a writer. After graduating from Smith College in Massachusetts, I moved to New York City and worked for the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.

I never imagined when I began writing in the early 1960s I'd become professional and my life would be transformed.

It wasn't until I was 26 or 25 when I started sending work out to magazines.

I wrote for 10 years before I even started the 'Percy Jackson' series.

I had a few stories and longer pieces published, but my first proper novel came in 2003, called 'Dead I Well May Be.'

My dad was an interior design and furniture person. I started working with him for four years before my first TV writing break.

I had been writing professionally since 1988.