from Charlie Willis:

http://confoundedblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/quotes-and-response.html

"For a short time, theatre became a medium where you COULD make more
than just a living. You could actually live fairly comfortably on a
theatre artist's salary. I don't believe that's the case anymore --
except under the most abnormal of circumstances -- but few people who
aren't directly involved in theatre work understand that fact as
anything more than the old joke based around "I'm poor; I work in
theatre." The general public is working under the assumption that you
can make a decent living at it, as long as you're talented enough.
Unfortunately, this is shared by many young people going into college
programs, or just starting out following graduation from said
programs. In their heart of hearts, they think they'll be the lucky
one who will "make it", or manage to transubstantiate their theatre
work into a film/TV career. And maybe about 12 of them do."