Goodreads asked David Kamp:

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

David Kamp This will sound like a tautology, but: Writing for a living! Growing up middle-class in central New Jersey, I believed “writer” to be a path unavailable to me—something for smarter, wealthier, more interesting people. But I basically stumbled, by feel and instinct, into a writing career. And I’ve never taken it for granted. It’s amazing to write for a living, to skitter along the edges of 9-to-5 society, doing one’s own thing: nonfiction, fiction, lyrics for a musical. What you didn’t ask, Goodreads, is what the downside is, which is that there’s never truly a day off, and one lives with a constant nagging voice that says, “You should be working on that book/article/song, not watching old Roosevelt Franklin clips on YouTube.” But this is a good life, and I know it.

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