I knew I'd have to go to work in real estate or something else or I could never finish my novel.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I knew I wanted to write novels, but I could not finish what I started. The closer I got, the more ways I'd find to screw it up.
My first novel was turned down by half a dozen publishers. And even after having published five or six books, I wasn't making enough money to live on, and was beginning to think I'd have to give up the dream of being a full-time writer.
I wanted to be a novelist for so long.
I instantly chucked my academic ambitions and began writing fiction full-time.
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.
I never know as a writer when I set out into a novel where it's going to take me.
I still have a full-time day job, which is why it took me five years to write An Ear to the Ground, and why I won't have another book finished by next week.
Without the faintest possibility of finding a job, I decided to devote myself to literature: it was about time to find out what I was worth as a writer.
I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do ever - was write novels.
When I was 30 or so - by that time I had become an assistant D.A. - I decided I would try to write a novel. To be clear: I did not decide to become a novelist. Honestly, it never crossed my mind that I could actually earn a living as a professional novelist.