“My dreams are the usual incoherent nonsense. Like most writers, at some point in my career I thought, well, I have these great dreams but I always forget them in the morning so I’ll leave a pad on my bedside table so I can write it down, and then you have some incredible dream and you write it down and the next morning you wake up and you’ve written ‘purple socks’.” WritingWellsI CanDreamNextForgetCareersMorningWrittenWake UpDown AndTablesIncrediblesNonsenseUsualPurpleSockPads Author:George R. R. Martin
“I never even considered writing a career option. I just liked the play of words. I was certainly interested in story, but the stories I was telling then were in narrative verse and prose poems, short and succinct, except for one novel-length poem written in narrative couplets.” WritingPlayStoriesCareersNovelWrittenNarrativeProseLengthVersesCouplets Author:Charles de Lint
“The whole movie thing has never been a source of great pride for me, in that Burt Reynolds, who starred in the picture, butchered the original script I had written for the late Steve McQueen, and the result, while a massive moneymaker, was lashed by the critics. But like the old joke about Pierre the Bridge Builder, The Cannonball Run is indelibly inscribed on my so-called career portfolio, and few conversations with strangers pass without the subject of the picture arising.” WholeRunningResultsCareersWrittenSubjectsSourcePrideConversationLateJokesOriginalsCriticsScriptsStrangerBridgesMassiveBuilderPortfoliosMcqueenOld JokesCannonballs Author:Brock Yates
“I HAVE no patience with the hypothesis occasionally expressed, and often implied, especially in tales written to teach children to be good, that babies are born pretty much alike, and that the sole agencies in creating differences between boy and boy, and man and man, are steady application and moral effort. It is in the most unqualified manner that I object to pretensions of natural equality. The experiences of the nursery, the school, the University, and of professional careers, are a chain of proofs to the contrary.” MenChildrenSchoolBornNaturalDifferencesEffortMoralBoysCareersTeachWrittenObjectsBabyCreatingUniversityBe GoodProofContraryTalesChainsAgencyApplicationSteadySoleHypothesisPretensionNurseryImpliedUnqualifiedNo PatienceProfessional CareerI Have No Patience Book:Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry Into Its Laws and Consequences Source: Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry Into Its Laws and Consequences
“I am a political recidivist. An incorrigible, repeat voter. A career lever-pusher. My electoral rap sheet is as long as your arm. Over the course of three decades, I have voted for presidents and school board members. I have voted in high hopes and high dudgeon. I have voted in favor of candidates and merely against their opponents. I have voted for propositions written with such complexity that I needed Noam Chomsky to deconstruct their meaning. I have been a single-issue voter and a marginal voter. I have even voted for people who ran unopposed. Hold an election and I'll be there.” PeopleLongHas BeensSchoolPoliticalThreeCoursesPresidentCareersIssuesWrittenArmsNeededMembersElectionRapDecadesFavorsRanBoardsOpponentsComplexityRepeatsCandidatesVotersSheetsPropositionsLeversIncorrigibleSchool BoardBoard Members Author:Ellen Goodman
“I pretty much started out writing full time. I was an at-home mom and when my youngest entered kindergarten, I started writing. I was 35, and before that I really hadn't written at all. Which means, I guess, that a) it's never too late to start a writing career (or any career you really want) and b) it's OK to get to your mid-30s and still not know what you want to be when you grow up.” KnowsWantWritingMeanStillsHomeGrowsCareersGrowing UpWrittenMomLateWhat You WantToo LateKindergartenNever Too Late Author:Elizabeth Hoyt
“I'm not ambitious when it comes to my acting career. I'm not breaking down my agency's doors or sending out headshots. Even when I'm offered work, I always want small parts. When it comes to things that other people have written, I just don't know what I'm doing. I'm terrible at memorizing a script and reading lines. I get confused and I don't understand and it just looks fake to me. It's more difficult for me to be creative that way.” PeopleKnowsWayWantLooksReadingDifficultLinesActingCareersCreativeWrittenDoorsTerribleScriptsFakeAgencyConfusedAmbitiousBe CreativeBreaking DownSmall PartsMemorizingHeadshots Author:Amy Sedaris
“An important factor to note is that it's rare for anyone to sell a first novel written before they turned 30-35; long-format fiction tends to require a bunch of experience of human life that takes time to acquire. So your average mid-career novelist is in their forties to fifties!” FirstsHumansLongImportantFictionCareersNovelWrittenSellsNotesAverageBunchFactorsHuman LifeNovelistsAcquireFortyTake TimeFormat Author:Charles Stross