“...much of the discovery of the world was based on failure rather than on success--on tactical errors and pipe dreams.” — David Grann Discovery Copy Share Image
“Exploration...no longer seemed aimed at some outward discovery; rather, it was directed inward...” — David Grann Exploration Copy Share Image
“The crooked guardians and administrators of Osage estates were typically among the most prominent white citizens:” — David Grann Copy Share Image
“A growing number of white Americans expressed alarm over the Osage’s wealth—outrage that was stoked by the press.” — David Grann Outrage Copy Share Image
It was a very circuitous path. It was not very linear - I floundered about for many years. — David Grann Copy Share Image
It's funny: I don't know if she babysat, but I spent time with Judy Blume when I was little. — David Grann Funny Copy Share Image
Memory is a code to who we are, a collection of not just dates and facts but also of epic emotional struggles,… — David Grann Change Copy Share Image
I was a schoolteacher; I taught seventh and eighth grade, and I tried to write fiction on the side. — David Grann Eighth grade Copy Share Image
“Fawcett, who had always found refuge in the natural world, no longer recognized the wilderness of bombed-out villages, denuded trees, craters, and… — David Grann Lost souls Copy Share Image
You want the story to be about something, have some deeper meaning, but there is also an emotional, almost instinctual, element, which… — David Grann Copy Share Image
“It was the greatest loss of life in the history of the British military, and many in the West began to portray… — David Grann History Copy Share Image
“White gave his men advice in case their cover was blown: “Keep your balance, avoid any rough stuff if possible.” Making it… — David Grann Copy Share Image
I had many different careers early on. I knew I wanted to be a writer. But, like so many people, I didn't… — David Grann Career Copy Share Image
“History is a merciless judge. It lays bare our tragic blunders and foolish missteps and exposes our most intimate secrets, wielding the… — David Grann History Copy Share Image
“A prominent member of the Osage tribe put the matter more bluntly: "It is a question in my mind whether this jury… — David Grann Copy Share Image
I never want to make people upset, but sometimes we may. When I interview people, I try to make it clear that… — David Grann Interview Copy Share Image
There's a tendency when we write history to do it with the power of hindsight and then assume almost god-like knowledge that… — David Grann Hindsight Copy Share Image
I was not very good at newspaper reporting. I'm just not quick enough, and I always tend to tell things as stories. — David Grann Copy Share Image
Firemen have a culture of death. There are rituals, carefully constructed for the living, to process the dead. — David Grann Culture Copy Share Image
“As Sherlock Holmes famously said, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” — David Grann Copy Share Image
“As the historian Richard Gid Powers has noted, J. Edgar Hoover found in Progressivism an approach that reflected his own obsession with… — David Grann History Copy Share Image
“For years after the American Revolution, the public opposed the creation of police departments, fearing that they would become forces of repression.” — David Grann American revolution Copy Share Image
“It begins as barely a rivulet, this, the mightiest river in the world, mightier than the Nile and the Ganges, mightier than… — David Grann River Copy Share Image
“The instruction was intended to assimilate Mollie into white society and transform her into what the authorities conceived of as the ideal… — David Grann Ideal woman Copy Share Image
“At forty-four, Mollie could finally spend her money as she pleased, and was recognized as a full-fledged American citizen.” — David Grann American citizen Copy Share Image
Early on, I tried fiction, but I wasn't very good at it. I wrote a very bad novel that is thankfully sitting… — David Grann Copy Share Image
The public, the whites - not just in Oklahoma, but across the United States - were transfixed by the Osage wealth which… — David Grann Copy Share Image
“White and his cowboy hat loomed over the diminutive Hoover, who was so sensitive about his modest stature that he rarely promoted… — David Grann Cowboy hat Copy Share Image
When criminals go free, the hope is that history will come in and provide some level of justice. It won't correct the… — David Grann Crime Copy Share Image
My mother doesn't need much sleep. At any hour of the night, you'd wake up, and she'd be reading. She'd read five,… — David Grann Mother Copy Share Image
“Jararaca” his father said. It was a pit viper, one of the most venomous snakes in the Americas. (A jararaca bite will… — David Grann Parenting Copy Share Image
The Osage have this lovely phrase: 'Travelers in the Mist.' It was the term for part of an Osage clan that would… — David Grann Copy Share Image
“Darwin’s theory, laid out in On the Origin of Species in 1859, suggested that people and apes shared a common ancestor, and,… — David Grann Darwin Copy Share Image
“The room was dark. Nina Fawcett sat on one side of a table; on the other was a woman peering into a… — David Grann Crystal ball Copy Share Image
The amazing thing about the sea is that it is perhaps the last truly unexplored frontier; most oceanographers estimate that only about… — David Grann Amazing Copy Share Image
“They marched like madmen from place to place, until overcome by exhaustion and lack of strength they could no longer move from… — David Grann Exhaustion Copy Share Image
“Yet an ugliness often lurked beneath the reformist zeal of Progressivism. Many Progressives—who tended to be middle-class white Protestants—held deep prejudices against… — David Grann Progressives Copy Share Image
A lot of the stories I write about have an element of mystery. They're crime stories or conspiracy stories or quests. They… — David Grann Adventure Copy Share Image
“To believe that the Osages survived intact from their ordeal is a delusion of the mind. What has been possible to salvage… — David Grann Past and present Copy Share Image
It took me a long time to be able to write for the 'New Yorker,' and for me, that has been the… — David Grann Copy Share Image
