The appeal of writing is primarily the investigation of…

The worst mistake anyone can make is to perceive anyone else as lesser. The deeper you look into other souls - and writing is…

— Andrew Solomon

Writing is primarily a sensuous and creative expression of life.

— Meridel Le Sueur

Writing is not primarily escape, but use.

— Henry James

“Soon after you confront the matter of preserving your identity, another question will occur to you: “Who am I writing for?” It’s a fundamental…

— William Zinsser

“If you're writing primarily for one person besides yourself, I'd advise you pay very close attention to that person's opinion (I know one fellow…

— Stephen King

Insomniac is an impassioned work-an inspired amalgam of academic and first-hand research, memoir, analysis, and the kind of obsessive brooding we associate with the…

— Joyce Carol Oates

“Mary dashed the rain from her eyes with a frozen hand. Was that a knife buried in the man’s chest with the blood seeping…

— Susan Rowland

[In geology,] As in history, the material in hand remains silent if no questions are asked. The nature of these questions depends on the…

— Anonymous

The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by…

— Milan Kundera

It required unusual inquisitiveness to pursue the development of scientific curiosities such as charged pith balls, the voltaic cell, and the electrostatic machine. Without…

— Frederick Seitz

Democracy is not being well served as we're accustomed to. There is less information, there's less investigation, there's less analysis, there's less accountability.

— Edward Greenspon

Honest investigation is utterly impossible within the pale of any church, for the reason, that if you think the church is right you will…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

The prediction of nuclear winter is drawn not, of course, from any direct experience with the consequences of global nuclear war, but rather from…

— Carl Sagan

A dialogue is very important. It is a form of communication in which question and answer continue till a question is left without an…

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jonah Lehrer is one of the most talented explainers of science that we’ve got. What a pleasure it is to follow his investigation of…

— Joshua Foer