Firsts Quote by Erica Jong

I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.

— Wislawa Szymborska

I entered a poem in a poetry contest around 1987, and the poem won and I received $1,000 for it. That made me realize…

— Sharon Creech

Modern poets talk against business, poor things, but all of us write for money. Beginners are subjected to trial by market.

— Robert Frost

I didn't make any money from my writing until much later. I published about 80 stories for nothing. I spent on literature.

— Naguib Mahfouz

So I really began as a failed poet - although when I first wanted to be a writer, I learned to write prose by…

— Nicholson Baker

“Poets and writers don't live either for money or for fame. And even without any recognition for their work they keep on writing!”

— Avijeet Das

How much money you get, depends on lots of extraneous things. It depends on how good you are at turning poetry into a marketable…

— Robert Bringhurst

“People say that writers write for money. From my own experience that's not true. I write for me. I publish for money.”

— Greg Curtis

I have been writing poetry since 1975. My first poetry book was published in 1986.

— Taslima Nasrin

I thought I was going to be a poet when I was in college, but then I found out I was poor so I…

— Josh Lieb

If you only write when inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you'll never be a novelist.

— Neil Gaiman

I was pushing for a career in poetry and of course the received wisdom was that you would never make a living at it.

— John Cooper Clarke