"Dad’s example made me feel that, if I wanted to write for a living, I had an obligation to try and do it, and I’ve been writing full-time since 1996, when my first novel did well enough to let me quit my day job as an editor at the London Review of Books."
particularly "my first novel did well enough to let me quit my day job"
... so, the money he made set him free from his day job so he could do what he was interested in. :/
"Dad’s example made me feel that, if I wanted to write for a living, I had an obligation to try and do it, and I’ve been writing full-time since 1996, when my first novel did well enough to let me quit my day job as an editor at the London Review of Books."
particularly "my first novel did well enough to let me quit my day job"
... so, the money he made set him free from his day job so he could do what he was interested in. :/