You shall know the truth, and it will make you odd.

Not everyone is capable of madness; and of those lucky enough to be capable, not many have the courage for it.

— August Strindberg

Special qualities are required of the essayist. A poem or a novel may spring from the inner consciousness of an author. Reasoning poers must…

— Flora Thompson

We’re only here for a short while. And I think it’s such a lucky accident, having been born, that we’re almost obliged to pay…

— Mark Strand

“Only where there is life can there be home.”

— Joyce Carol Oates

Willmott, the English essayist, says poetry is the natural religion of literature.

— William Rounseville Alger

I find that white people in general, including white liberals and even revolutionaries, are most inclined to call you a racist when they don't…

— Runoko Rashidi

You simply cannot invent any conspiracy theory so ridiculous and obviously satirical that some people somewhere don't already believe it.

— Robert Anton Wilson

I thought that I wasn't an essayist because I just didn't see myself in a lot of the essays that were popular at the…

— John D'Agata

Women need to become literary criminals, break the literary laws and reinvent their own, because the established laws prevent women from presenting the reality…

— Kathy Acker

Essayists must not only be succinct but have original ideas and, even harder to come by, or to fake, likable voices. Consciously or not,…

— Cyra McFadden

Wanderlust is not a passion for travel exactly, it’s something more animal and more fickle- more like lust. We don’t lust after very many…

— Elisabeth Eaves

What I'm doing is exploring things. This is why I'm a fiction writer rather than an essayist or a politician or whatever. I just…

— T.C. Boyle

Jane Jacobs work wouldnt have been complete if it hadn't inspired others to carry it on, and evolve Jane's groundbreaking accomplishments so that the…

— Majora Carter

I'm a woofer, not a tweeter; a writer, not a telegrapher; an essayist, not an aphorist.

— Richard Turner

By now, legions of tireless essayists and op-ed columnists have dressed feminists down for making such a fuss about entering the professions and earning…

— Mary Blakely