Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer
"A Message About Messages" in CBC Magazine https://web.archive.org/web/20051128074549/http://www.cbcbooks.org/cbcmagazine/meet/leguin_ursula_k.html
On his wanting to become a writer at an early age in " From Poverty to Power: The Inspiring Story of Tomas Rivera http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/778847/From-Poverty-to-Power-The-Inspiring-Story-of-Tomas-Rivera" (TeenInk)
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer
"A Message About Messages" in CBC Magazine https://web.archive.org/web/20051128074549/http://www.cbcbooks.org/cbcmagazine/meet/leguin_ursula_k.html
Alex Haley (1921–1992) African American biographer, screenwriter, and novelist
"The Shadowland of Dreams"', published in Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work (1996) by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Maida Rogerson, Martin Rutte and Tim Clauss; also in Alex Haley : The Man Who Traced America's Roots (2007), a collection of stories and essays by Haley published in Reader's Digest between 1954 to 1991.
Context: Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there’s a big difference between “being a writer” and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at the typewriter. “You’ve got to want to write,” I say to them, “not want to be a writer.”
The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune, there are thousands more whose longing is never requited. Even those who succeed often know long periods of neglect and poverty. I did.
D.J. MacHale (1955) American television director and producer
Source: AME with D.J. MacHale https://www.reddit.com/r/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark/comments/l875no/ame_with_dj_machale/ (January 29, 2021)
Philip Roth (1933–2018) American novelist
I don't need that question answered.
Paris Review Interview (1986)
Nalo Hopkinson (1960) Jamaican Canadian writer
On the author having the right to reveal anything personal that’s significant to them in “Interview: Nalo Hopkinson” http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/interview-nalo-hopkinson/ in Lightspeed (June 2013)
“What will people say?”
“Who,” I asked, “is going to tell them?”
T. A. Waters (1938–1998) American magician
Source: The Probability Pad (1970), Chapter 2 (p. 12)
Randall Jarrell book Pictures from an Institution
Source: Pictures from an Institution (1954) [novel], Chapter 1, p. 22
“When people say that the Bible and politics don't mix, I ask them which Bible they are reading.”
Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner
Attributed but unsourced
Source: http://www.christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/blog/january-2015/Faith-and-politics-a-match-made-in-heaven.aspx
Source: https://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/worshipandmusic/sermon-archive/anticipating-the-general-election