Lydia Davis Quotes

I've always had a day job and never been just acting.

All musicians need a day job in the beginning. Unless they still live with their parents, I guess. I'm just lucky that my day job is simply another form of art.

Choose a field that will supply sufficient remuneration to provide adequately for your companion and your children. I bear testimony that these criteria are very important in choosing your life's work.

But I was going to be a teacher my entire life, so I wasn't counting on money to much.

There's a big difference between wanting to work and having to work. And I had to learn that the hard way. Now money is very important to me, because I ain't got it.

No matter how much money I made from writing, I'd keep the bookstore job.

Working at a startup to make a lot of money was never a thing, and that's why I decided to just finish up school. That was way more important for me.

Sometimes I think, 'Oh, I wish I just had a nice job where you're getting a salary.' Just sometimes.

I never wanted to take a job because I needed money, and I never have.

I'm fortunate in having journalism as a sideline to pay the bills, and I essentially do it in order to take as long as I want with books.

I can kind of make money through my other passion, which is brewing, and that's a pretty stable business, and it would free up my timeslot to take roles that I really liked and that I thought were interesting.

Everything in our lives revolves around our jobs, as much as we hate to say it. Where we live at, where our kids go to school, what we eat, what lifestyle we live, depends on the income we bring in and being able to provide for your family, and that's your employment.

I did 75 films. I didn't take a break; I didn't spend my money. I have my savings, so when you're not working for money anymore, then you should find things that are meaningful and not just be like, 'OK, that's another day gone.'

My parents always taught me that my day job would never make me rich; it'd be my homework.

Don't make career choices on short-term financial gain. Job satisfaction and career enjoyment are far more important.

Only when you are self-employed do you fully realize how much more efficient you become when your output directly correlates with how much money you make.

My career has mostly been jobs I love or cases where I needed money.

I have earned enough money in my life. When I started my career, for about 10 years, I told myself I want to make money. Now, I just want to do different roles.

I worked selling tickets for Dodger Stadium; I delivered pizza; I did every job under the sun. It's the part that sucks as an artist. But I've learned at the end of the day you just have to enjoy your life.

Writing became an obsessive compulsive habit but I had almost no money so I thought about being an urban firefighter and having lots of free time in which to write or becoming an English teacher and thinking about books and writers on a daily basis. That swayed me.

I knew I'd have to go to work in real estate or something else or I could never finish my novel.

I didn't think that a career in theater was very realistic so I thought the only thing I could make money doing and still be somewhat artistic was, god help me, advertising.

Work for the fun of it, and the money will arrive some day.

My advice for writers is to get a good day job. It takes the pressure off writing if you have a job that pays the bills.

Marcel, no more painting; go get a job.