Kurt Vonnegut on Making a Living as a Writer

PART A: FROM WRITING

I used to teach a writers’ workshop . . . and I would say at the start of every semester, “The role model for this course is Vincent Van Gogh—who sold two paintings to his brother.” —Kurt Vonnegut

The toughest, most fundamental question for a serious writer or artist of any kind, if you’re not born with a silver spoon in your mouth, is how to support your habit.

Read it. 

I supported mine in several ways during the course of my career: first, like Graham Greene, by making a distinction between entertainment and literature, a journalist to pay the bills, a literary artist to stay sane. Then, primarily in 1980s, I got good at the grant game. Later, in the 1990s,  Portland State University invited me to start a screenwriting program, and I taught part-time for the next twenty years. I consider myself lucky and, with regard to grants, having good timing.

But I feel the consequences in old age, having less retirement income than I would have had if I'd have taught full time. It was worth it.