In 1975, Quinn left his career as a publisher to become a freelance writer. He is best known for his book "Ishmael" (1992), which won the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award in 1991. Several judges disputed giving the entire $500,000 award to Quinn for "Ishmael", rather than dividing the money among several authors, though judge Ray Bradbury, for one, supported the decision. "Ishmael" became the first of a loose trilogy of novels by Quinn, including "The Story of B" and "My Ishmael", all of which brought increasing fame to Quinn throughout the 1990s. He became a well-known author to followers of the environmental, simple living, and anarchist movements, although he did not strongly self-identify with any of these.