Half-remembered quote about poets

January 11, 2013 10:16 AM

I read, somewhere, a quote about poets to the effect that even successful poets have day jobs, collect disability payments or come from money. I vaguely recall that this was said (or written) by a woman who was a successful [poet? writer? editor?] in her own right, and who would have had a reasonable sample size on which to base the statement. What quote am I thinking of? Who wrote or said it? My googles have been uncharacteristically ineffective in locating the quote or identifying the source.
posted by dersins to Writing & Language (2 answers total)

The remark about coming from money makes me think of a similar remark in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, but the remark about disability payments makes me think it's not that.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:47 AM on January 11, 2013

That sounds vaguely like it may have come from a Natalie Goldberg book, and the one that springs to mind is Wild Mind
posted by sarastro at 10:56 AM on January 11, 2013