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For many years I was engaged in journalism, writing articles and chronicles for the daily press without ever joining the staff of any newspaper.

I quit my job just to quit. I didn't quit my job to write fiction. I just didn't want to work anymore.

I quit my job, and went ashore to become a writer.

Writing happened to me. I didn't decide to start writing or to be a writer. I never wanted to be a writer.

I wrote for years before I was ever published, and I don't think I could ever stop. That said, I was also a veterinarian before I sold my first book, and I still volunteer my time to help with animal welfare causes. So that is a career I would be happy to return to - while still secretly writing strange stories back in my doctor's office.

I wasn't taking myself seriously as a novelist, and then it became my day job.

I couldn't have been the novelist I was without being the journalist I was.

I am not a pure fiction writer, nor am I an academic writer. Somehow I ended up in this blended area of literary journalism.

I think I became a writer because I didn't know of anything else to do. Maybe some incident from my childhood influenced me.