Jennifer McMahon Quotes

After an 18-year career, I left the film industry, not wanting to become one of those child-actor cautionary tales.

I was lucky, and once I moved to L.A., I didn't have to get another job besides acting. But I wouldn't trade my previous jobs for anything.

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

Law became boring, but like every job I've done, it helped prepare me for a career in music.

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.

I just spent a lot of time on 'ER' for that eight years. I also started working when I was 16, so by the time I left 'ER,' I was 40 years old, I had this incredible experience, my wife had this great company, we had four kids, it was like, 'Let's go to New York and live for a while and make that the priority.'

I wanted to be a landscape architect, but I trained as a teacher; I worked in publishing; I was a waitress.

Having been a journalist for almost 20 years and then becoming a politician has definitely been an interesting and enriching experience for me.

I was working in customer service and had a verbally abusive boss. One day, I decided to quit and pursue my acting passion with everything I had. One week after quitting, I booked 'One Life to Live.'

I don't see myself doing catalog shoots in Madrid anymore like I was doing two years ago. I hope that the acting side of things grows.

I never wanted to be that person who leaves 'SNL' and nothing happens.

The interesting roles have only come since I got into my 30s. But I didn't know that was going to happen.

The only reason my work seems to be eclectic up to a certain period is because I was a failure as an actor.

I didn't cry when I left free-booting, smash-and-grab papers that would have appeared to be far more natural homes for me and, at the risk of being vulgar, paid far better for my services.

And I discovered after a couple years that I really didn't miss making movies.

Like most people, I was not able to start selling my stories right away. So I had many other jobs along the way to becoming a writer, including toy maker, gravedigger, cookware salesman, and assembly line worker. Eventually, I became an elementary teacher and worked with second and fourth graders.

It's emotional to be leaving 'Page Three.' It's been my life since I was 18, and I'm so grateful for the chances it gave me.

I know that if I could really understand mental illness, then it would be appropriate to make a big career shift. I would become a therapist and a leader in terms of mental illness. But I'm not in the position.

I'd like to extend my career a little bit into different genres.

There were many years when I was hand-to-mouth and didn't know how I was gonna make rent. I've done every job under the sun, from busing tables, temping, and working in factories to SAT prep and detailing cars. So to be able to make a living where all I do is write is absolutely liberating.

In 1989, I retired from Bell Laboratories to become a full-time writer. Not that I didn't enjoy my engineering career, but rather I liked being a novelist just a bit better.

There was a time, after I earned my graduate degree and before I sold my first novel, when it looked like I might have to get an office job.

I thank God I was a reporter before I became a writer.

I didn't intend to be an actress. It was one of many things I was interested in, and it just took off. I was an actress between the ages of 18 and 22, and it was a wonderful, fun thing to do, but it wasn't what I intended long term. I parked acting a long time ago.

My story is how to have a life while dealing with mental illness, and I've had a life. I've been blessed. It's been a different kind of life than what I planned on, but it's been a good life nonetheless.