Artistic Livelihood Quotes

Prose books are the show dogs I breed and sell to support my cat.

Every time we give a musician the advice to give away the music and sell the T-shirt, we're saying, 'Don't make your living in this more elevated way. Instead, reverse this social progress, and choose a more physical way to make a living.' We're sending them to peasanthood, very much like the Maoists have.

I started as a writer. I had the dumb act, but I made my living from writing.

I'm still awaiting the idea of drawing comics for a living being a reality. I feel like I've been dodging work for 20 years, and at some point, I'll have to get a real job.

Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance.

It's a strange position to be in. Not only the fact that I'm trying to live off work that is personal, but how you get the money for that is racing around the country and smiling for people and selling the record, you know what I mean?

One of my aims was to be paid as well as a plumber. Plumber was better-paid than any performance artist who was always doing this for free. It is so important to make a good living from art. You know, John Cage, until he was 60, he couldn't pay electricity.

I've had the experience of seeing what makes life easier for an actor and for the crew, and what makes it feel bogged down and challenging. We're all really fortunate that we get to make our living as artists.

I am a commercial artist because I paint to earn a living. We who earn money from what we produce are all commercial artists.

I've always considered myself an actor, but I wasn't making a living as an actor.

I am a person who can't teach writing or make a living in any public way, as I get confused when interrupted or overstimulated. In a classroom or crowded room, I all but blank out. So my only income is from novels.

How I envy those clerks who go by to their offices in the morning! There's the day's work cut out for them; no question of mood and feeling; they have just to work at something, and when the evening comes, they have earned their wages, and they are free to rest and enjoy themselves. What an insane thing it is to make literature one's only means of support! When the most trivial accident may at any time prove fatal to one's power of work for weeks or months. No, that is the unpardonable sin! To make a trade of an art! I am rightly served for attempting such a brutal folly.

Basically, I'm just a guitar player that figured out I wasn't ever gonna be able to buy dinner with my guitar playing. So I got into songwriting, which is a little more profitable business.

As you reach more people, there is a potential to make a living with what you are creating, and that's the goal.

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I'll share the formula I learned while forging my way forward as a full-time painter for forty-four years. The steps all break down to one simple sentence: Make art that connects with enough folks for you to earn a splendid living.

A writer can make a fortune in America, but he can't make a living.

I used to sing as a living while I was at university.

I didn't get paid for performances most of my life. If I did, I would be billionaire now, and I'm not.

Painting pictures didn't make me a lot of money. I have to eat.

It's a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.

As a journeyman singer, I have to go to where the work is.

I sing my song for a living, and I don't really worry about who listens or what they think. But it seems to make a living.

It became apparent to me really fast that I wasn't going to be able to make a living and pay my bills playing on Broadway.

I'm not stupid enough to want to be famous. But I would like to be able to earn a living playing music.

Working a model liberated me from ever having to hold a day job. I transitioned from doing that to working full-time as an artist. If you're 19 and living cheap, being an artist model can sustain you. I dropped out of college at 21 and my illustration hadn't yet taken off. It is more than working in a store. It is a hard way to make a living but you earn more than in a similarly unskilled job.