Philosophy Quote by ContraPoints

I studied philosophy, religious studies, and English. My training was writing four full-length novels and hiring an editor to tear them apart. I had…

— Ted Dekker

I spent several years acquiring the obsessive, day-to-day discipline that's needed if you want to write professionally, then several more, highly valuable years studying…

— John Dalton

The MFA program did one great thing for me: It taught me how to be a better reader and critic. Nothing I wrote during…

— Dinaw Mengestu

When I was in high school and college, my other real focus was, actually, fiction writing. So in college, I had done all these…

— Lily Rabe

I've been a writer my whole life. I've just never pursued a career in it since I graduated college.

— Scheana Shay

In high school and college, I started to read more and write science fiction myself. I was fully engaged in writing in the 1990s.

— Liu Cixin

It took me a couple of years after I got out of Berkeley before I dared to start writing. That academic mind-set - which…

— Joan Didion

I instantly chucked my academic ambitions and began writing fiction full-time.

— Peter Straub

I didn't go to graduate school, where all the important writers seemed to be getting their start. I didn't pursue getting published in literary…

— Jami Attenberg

Though I later found a career as a journalist and an essayist, fiction is my first love and I never left it, even though…

— Andrew Lam

When I was starting out, I did not do short fiction well, because I kept wanting to write books.

— Elizabeth Moon

Becoming a tutor was among the many attractive post-collegiate side careers I failed to pursue while devoting the bulk of my days to writing…

— Laura Moser