Anyone who has seriously considered the profession of writing

Anyone who has seriously considered the profession of writing, as I am, has most likely considered the fact that it takes a great toll out of anything that would happen to you in the future. I have had people in my life, people who were earnestly trying to help me, do their best to discourage me from being a professional writer. Their reasoning was that I would starve and always be poor. I was even told that a person needs to be as famous as Stephen King in order to make a living as a professional writer while not having to work some other job like accounting or retail.

With me, I'd shrivel if I tried doing those for the rest of my life. I'm currently unemployed, due to reasons other than simply wanting to write, so I do have the time right now, but in order to make a living at it, I know that I need to be able to write full time so I can have to edit and actually make it nice.

As I am right now, I am struggling to forget the discouragement I received in the past so that I can move on and actually do what I believe I was made for. The times when I do not write are the times when I do not really feel like I am living. I could write and never get published, but where's the fun in that? Why should I be satisfied with simply letting my creation sit there and do nothing? That would be like building a car and keeping it in the driveway to say that you built it.

For me, writing is not just a "hobby", as I have been told I should consider it. It's a way of life. It is the purpose in my life that helps define me as a person. I am a writer, that is what I am. I cannot escape it; I have tried. Is there anyone else who feels the same way about writing? Am I alone here? Am I mad or insane? What is the price you would pay to write?