“Having a day job again I found really kind of fueled my fiction, because it became almost this forbidden thing where I had to sneak off and do it in private.” KindJobsFoundFictionForbiddenSneakDay JobsForbidden Things Author:Jennifer Weiner
“I do, however, feel reasonably strongly the sense that the job of a piece of argumentative scholarly non-fiction is not the same as the job of a piece of fiction.” FeelsJobsFictionPiecesNon FictionScholarly Author:China Mieville
“I didn’t do anything. I don’t have an explanation, I don’t know why I wanted to write. I did some short stories at that time, but very infrequently. I quit my job just to quit. I didn’t quit my job to write fiction. I just didn’t want to work anymore” KnowsWantWritingStoriesWantedJobsFictionQuittingExplanationShort StoryI Quit Book:Conversations with Don DeLillo Source: Conversations with Don DeLillo
“I think what people really want is fiction that in some tiny way makes their life more meaningful and makes the world seem like a richer place. The world is awfully short on joy and richness, and I think to some extent it’s the fiction writer’s job to salvage some of that and to give it to us in ways that we can believe in.” PeopleThinkingWorldWayWantGivingBelieveSeemsJobsJoyFictionTinyMeaningfulRichnessFiction WritersSalvage Author:Wells Tower
“The strange and wonderful Book of Job treats of the same subject as we are discussing; its contents are a fiction, conceived for the purpose of explaining the different opinions which people hold on Divine Providence. ...This fiction, however, is in so far different from other fictions that it includes profound ideas and great mysteries, removes great doubts, and reveals the most important truths. I will discuss it as fully as possible; and I will also tell you the words of our Sages that suggested to me the explanation of this great poem.” PeopleImportantBookIdeasDifferentJobsPurposeFictionOpinionDoubtWonderfulMysterySubjectsDivineStrangeTreatsProfoundExplanationRemoveProvidenceSageExplainingDiscussingDivine ProvidenceDifferent Opinions Author:Maimonides
“It's not fiction's job to be photographically representative of reality. If I want to make a fictional world where there's no kindness, this doesn't mean I believe there's no kindness in the real world. In fact, what it may mean is that I very much value kindness. Like if you make a painting in which only greens are allowed, it wouldn't mean you don't believe in blue.” IfsWorldWantBelieveMayMeanRealFactsRealityJobsValuesI BelieveFictionKindnessPaintingBlueDon't BelieveReal WorldRepresentativesFictional Worlds Author:George Saunders
“I think people do look to writers to tell the truth in a way that nobody else quite will, not politicians or ministers or sociologists. A writer's job, is to, by way of fiction, somehow describe the way we live. And to me, this seems an important task, very worth doing, and I think also, to the reading public, it seems, even though they might not articulate it, it seems to them something worth doing also.” PeopleThinkingWayLooksImportantSeemsMightJobsReadingFictionPoliticianTasksMinistersTelling The TruthSociologists Author:John Updike
“At 20, 25, 30, we begin to realise that the possibilities of escape are getting fewer. We have jobs, children, partners, debts. This is the part of us to which literary fiction speaks.” ChildrenJobsLiteratureSpeakFictionPossibilityDebtPartnersRealisingFewer Author:Mark Haddon
“I was trained mainly as a short story writer and that's how I started writing, but I've also become very interested in non-fiction, just because I got a couple of magazine jobs when I was really poor and needed the money and it turned out that non-fiction was much more interesting than I thought it was.” WritingStoriesJobsInterestingPoorFictionCoupleNeededMagazinesShort StoryNon FictionStory Writers Author:David Foster Wallace
“My dad was always such a frustrated artist. He always worked very hard to support his family, doing a bunch of ridiculous jobs. He wanted to be a painter, but then he also wrote science-fiction novels in his spare time. He was always so frustrated having to work to support the family that I was like, I'm never going to do that. I don't want to just be working a menial job to support my family and dreaming of being an artist. We learn from our fathers in that way.” WayWantHardDreamWantedJobsArtistFatherFictionSupportNovelDadMy FamilyScience FictionMy DadRidiculousBunchPainterFrustratedSparesOur FatherBeing An ArtistSpare TimeFiction Novels Author:Rainn Wilson
“I am trying to come up with some "adult" reads, but I mostly read young adult fiction (my job), which, by the way is excellent. I will post about some of my favorites that should appeal to adult readers” WayShouldTryingJobsYoungFictionReaderAdultsYoung AdultCome UpPostsAppealsExcellent Author:Megan McCafferty
“Directing is a big responsibility to take on. I think I'm only good at doing things I know very well. I don't direct movies because I get offered the new vampire movie or science fiction movie. I don't get offered those, anyway, but if I did, I would just tell 'em, "Look, I'm the wrong guy." I only do things about people and situations, and I do the ones that I think I'm the best guy for the job on, which is usually something I generate myself.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWellsLooksBigsJobsGuyFictionResponsibilitySituationDirectScience FictionVampireEmsVampire MovieScience Fiction MovieBig ResponsibilityWrong Guy Author:Billy Bob Thornton
“For me, the fiction writer's job is to take the small, stupid process of learning to use an iPhone - and suddenly you're the guy who's asking your daughter, "When I go on Facebook, can it see me?"” UseJobsGuyProcessFictionStupidGoes OnDaughterAskingIphoneFiction WritersOur DaughterYour Daughter Author:George Saunders
“Many years ago I had two small children, and I wanted to be able to be home when they got home from school. And I didn't like the direction journalism was taking. I thought if I could write books, I could work at home and have the best of both worlds. I wrote my first mystery while still working full time, and it didn't sell, but the next one did sell, so I quit my job for the world of fiction. Scary, but I've never regretted it for a single day.” IfsWorldWritingYearsFirstsChildrenStillsTwoBookHomeAbleWantedSchoolJobsNextFictionMysteryYears AgoSellsScaryQuittingJournalismIf I CouldI QuitThe Next OneSmall ChildNever RegretBest Of Both Worlds Author:Mary Kay Andrews
“In America, the stories we tell ourselves and we tell each other in fiction have to do with individualism. Every person here is the center of his or her own story. And our job as people and as characters is to find our own motivations and desires, to overcome conflicts and obstacles toward defining ourselves so that we grow and change.” PeoplePersonsCharacterStoriesJobsAmericaDesireMotivationGrowsFictionConflictOvercomingObstaclesIndividualismDefiningDefining Ourselves Author:Adam Johnson
“I'm the only member of SFWA in Nebraska, but I don't pine away for the companionship of other science fiction writers. I [go] to very few conventions. I'm quite willing to be that eccentric who has a very odd job, quite happy to be the only science fiction writer in town.” JobsFictionWillingMembersTownsScience FictionOddConventionsCompanionshipEccentricFiction WritersNebraskaOdd Jobs Author:Robert Reed
“What I read: while I'm writing, I tend to go off reading fiction for relaxation - especially the challenging stuff. It's too much like the day job.” WritingJobsReadingStuffChallengesFictionToo MuchRelaxationDay JobsReading Fiction Author:Charles Stross
“My writing process is ritualized and monotonous, but there's no other way to get the job done. All other fiction writers I've met say the same thing.” WayWritingDoneJobsProcessFictionMetsWriting ProcessMonotonousFiction WritersGet The Job Done Author:Douglas Coupland
“...writing fiction...is no job for intellectual cowards.” WritingJobsFictionIntellectualCowardWriting Fiction Author:Stephen King
“If Fobbit leaves a reader feeling stranded in some bland in-between territory, then I haven't done my job. But having said all that, I didn't consciously write the book with a particular moral intent. I took what I experienced and processed it through the sausage factory of fiction. It's up to readers to interpret what's on the page - as is the case with any novel.” IfsWritingSaidBookDoneFeelingsJobsFictionMoralCasesNovelHavensParticularReaderPagesTerritoryFactoriesSausageBlandStranded Author:Dave Abrams
“So for a long time, I did a lot of freelance writing in addition to writing fiction and such - I was a food critic for a magazine for a bit, I did writing for nonprofits and political things, I was the editorial consultant for another magazine for a couple years, all sorts of jobs.” WritingYearsLongJobsPoliticalBitsFictionCoupleLong TimeCriticsMagazinesEditorialsWriting FictionConsultantsNonprofits Author:Tod Goldberg
“The challenge for any fiction writer is that your job involves simply sitting at a desk for a very, very long time.” LongJobsChallengesFictionLong TimeSittingDesksFiction Writers Author:Chad Harbach
“It's fiction's job to express how it feels to be living now, and it's a complex feeling, full of contradiction. To me it often feels like a brutal trivialization of reality.” FeelsFeelingsRealityJobsFictionComplexesContradictionBrutal Author:Michael Helm
“[Michael] Chabon is arguing in favor of what is at the same time an old-fashioned and very forward-thinking opening up - of taking off the class associations with those labels, because we grew up, or I certainly grew up, feeling that, "Oh, there's literary fiction, and beneath that, there's these other things." He's actually saying that they're all of equal merit, and in many cases, that work in the genres, or work that draws from the genres is more entertaining for readers, since it is our job to entertain people.” PeopleThinkingFeelingsJobsFictionClassCasesGrewReaderEqualGrew UpDrawsArguingFavorsOpeningLabelsGenreMeritAssociationEntertainingOld FashionedOpening UpGenre IsForward Thinking Author:Emily Barton
“I think it is our job, as writers, to be epic. Epic and tiny at the same time. If you're going to be a fiction writer, why not take on something that means something. In doing this, you must understand that within that epic structure it is the tiny story that is possibly more important.” IfsThinkingMeanImportantStoriesJobsFictionStructureTinyWhy NotEpicFiction Writers Author:Colum McCann