Sara Sheridan Quotes

I realized early on that being an author is a hugely misunderstood job. Because there are no pay grades and very little structure, people make interesting assumptions about the profession.

At this stage, my chief professional goal is simply to keep on writing and making a living at it.

I spent 20 years of my career primarily being a writer for hire.

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

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

I thought I would write non-fiction. I thought I would enter the New York literary scene as copy editor, work my way up, and then write my own books.

It's fun being paid to read stuff and air your opinion about it - pretty much a dream job for a writer.

Writing was my first occupation, begun at age 23.

My aunt could never understand how writing could be a full-time job. She'd keep asking when I'd get a real job!

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

I noticed in America that if you write a book of any kind, you're made to be the representative of all the issues that might surround it.

I always talk to young writers about when you make art in your room, you make art. And when you send it to New York and L.A., you have to be a professional. Of course, when you sell your book rights as an option for a movie, you have to be a professional about that.

My generation was maybe the last in which you could set up shop as a writer and hope to make a living at it.

Writing careers are short. For every 100 writers, 99 never get published. Of those who do, only one in every hundred gets a career out of it, so I count myself as immensely privileged.

It wasn't until after college that I started writing. I had just applied randomly for jobs in the media and got one on a magazine called 'Pensions World.' So I was writing for a living there and that's when I started my first book.

I am a book reviewer. I write for a glossy magazine called 'SCI FI.' The money is not life-changing, but it's a low-stress gig. Publishers send me their books. More than I could possibly read. I pick a few and write about them, put a very few others on the shelf, to be perused at my leisure, someday.

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 didn't really realize that writing... would be fun and people would pay you to do it. Being an astronaut is a glory profession, and so is writing, in a way.

Since I make my living as a literary journalist, not a book scout, I spend inordinate amounts of time either reading or writing.

It was always my dream to write for a living.

There was a part of me that always wanted to be an editor.

Some people see writing as a white-collar career, but I've always approached it as a blue-collar writer.

There are plenty of paths to becoming a writer, but I think the most reliable ones involve total commitment: writing for magazines and newspapers, teaching writing, editing books, representing authors.

In India, writers are underpaid. Universities should start new courses to create more opportunities for them.

I knew I wanted to write professionally and get paid.