You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.

This statement is similar or identical to several statements Hubbard is reported to have made to various individuals or groups in the 1940s. Variants include | The incident is stamped indelibly in my mind because of one statement that Ron Hubbard made. What led him to say what he did I can't recall — but in so many words Hubbard said: "I'd like to start a religion. That's where the money is!" | L. Ron Hubbard to Lloyd A. Eshbach, in 1949; as quoted by Eshbach in his autobiography Over My Shoulder: Reflections On A Science Fiction Era (1983) ISBN 1-880418-11-8 . | Y'know, we're all wasting our time writing this hack science fiction! You wanta make real money, you gotta start a religion! | As reported to Mike Jittlov by Theodore Sturgeon as a statement Hubbard made while at the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society clubhouse in the 1940s. | Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion. | As quoted in the Los Angeles Times (August 27, 1978) | Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion. | As quoted in the article "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult" by Eugene H. Methvin. Reader's Digest (May 1980). | I always knew he was exceedingly anxious to hit big money — he used to say he thought the best way to do it would be to start a cult. | Sam Merwin, Editor of Thrilling Science Fiction magazine Winter of 1946-47; quoted in Bare-Faced Messiah, The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard (1987) by Russell Miller | Whenever he was talking about being hard up he often used to say that he thought the easiest way to make money would be to start a religion. | Neison Himmel, briefly a roommate of Hubbard in Pasadena during the fall of 1945, in a 1986 interview, quoted in Bare-Faced Messiah, The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard (1987) by Russell Miller.