Lisa Lutz Quotes

I think my first story sold for $550. This was in 1954, and it seemed like quite a lot of money, and I said to myself, 'Hey, I'm a professional writer now.'

After about twenty issues of Josie, they decided to pay me.

I didn't get paid to write professionally until my first episode of 'Kyle XY,' which was the fourth episode of the first season.

I had no idea I'd end up writing four books when I completed 'Mortal Engines.' I didn't even think it would find a publisher.

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.'

For almost anyone who chooses to be a writer, since so very few writers are able to learn a living from their work that is equivalent to the living earned by the average dentist or accountant.

Being a professional writer is not an easy way to make a living.

It implies a slight failure as a writer that you are reduced to being a ghostwriter for the money.

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.

Even the people who have had success and made money writing these books of fiction seem to feel the need to pretend it's no big deal, or part of a natural progression from poetry to fiction, but often it's really just about the money, the perceived prestige.

I never earned a dollar that was not somehow through writing.

I got a lovely check today from being a writer that I earned by sitting at home. That's rewarding.

One of the things I learned from my father, and it did not serve me well at all, was that he was a successful writer, he earned a living. And it was a shock for me to find out that it was actually hard to make a living as a writer.

It's hard to make a living as a novelist. My first novel 'Tapping the Source' made quite a splash in Hollywood, and people started asking if I wanted to write scripts. I quickly realized I could make a lot more money that way.

When you're a mid-list writer, it pays to write fast.

I earn more than I thought I would when I became a poet.

I never expected to earn money out of writing. In fact, the idea of getting published was too bourgeois. Then, in England, I realised that writing a book was something you could do without it being laughable.

A whole bunch of agents and editors looked at my stories, and they all said, in effect, 'You're a pretty good writer and you should probably get these published; when you grow up and write a novel, get in touch.'

I have to write three books a year to make a reasonable living out of writing - unless, of course, she gets a major American film deal. Phryne has been optioned since the very first book, but to make a historical TV movie, it costs $30,000 a day extra for the historical detail to be correct, so most people aren't doing it.

I don't have a particular ambition in any medium. I just want to keep telling stories. If somebody pays me, also good.

When I was in my early 20s and still at uni, I won a short-story competition: £200 was the prize.

Once I started getting paid to be a writer and not having lots of other gross responsibilities, like making the puzzle or whatever, then my ambition changed, and I thought, 'Now I want to be a good writer.' And that became my ambition.

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

For every Steven King, there are a dozen guys like me who make a good living. For every David Brin, there are a dozen authors who have managed to make it their day job. For each of them, there are a dozen more for whom writing is a terrific supplement.

As enjoyable as it is when you're just writing and getting feedback from family members, it's 10 times more enjoyable, or 100 times more enjoyable, when you actually start getting paid for it, and people start reading your books, and once in a while you get a good review.