A common defense among obituary-fanciers such as myself is that the obit is not about death at all. It is about life. This is true since an article about the condition of deadness would make for turgid reading at best. — Tom Rachman Copy Share Image
Obituaries were among my favorite to write because they have elements no other news stories have - a story from start to finish with a proper conclusion. — Tom Rachman Copy Share Image
At the outset, my notion of being a writer was that you would have moments of inspiration and moments of frustration, when you'd crumple… — Tom Rachman Copy Share
“He cannot deny a certain relief in being able to sift through academic tomes, fulfilling his journalistic duty without having to barge past security… — Tom Rachman Copy Share
My intent was to gain experience for fiction I eventually hoped to write. But there's no question I was drawn in by the hope… — Tom Rachman Copy Share
“I built and I built— heaven knows I have done that well. Those skyscrapers, full of tenants, floor after floor, and not a single… — Tom Rachman Copy Share
“What is wrong with guys? Half are molting; half are nothing but undergrowth.” — Tom Rachman Copy Share
“What I really fear is time. That's the devil: whipping us on when we'd rather loll, so the present sprints by, impossible to grasp,… — Tom Rachman Copy Share
My parents used to rent old movies - my whole childhood is in black and white - and it was my dream to make… — Tom Rachman Copy Share
I went to the University of Toronto to study the history and theory of film, in the back of my mind thinking I'd go… — Tom Rachman Copy Share
The training of a journalist, of working with words for thousands of hours, is extraordinarily useful for a fiction writer. — Tom Rachman Copy Share
During my past career as a journalist, I relished writing obits and equally dreaded phoning relatives for the necessary facts. But to my surprise… — Tom Rachman Copy Share
“Don't people drown their sorrows in things like scotch? Not strawberry whatever-it's-called.” — Tom Rachman Copy Share
“She is a wonderful nerd, and he hopes this won't change. He'd be distressed if she were cool-- it'd be as if his flesh… — Tom Rachman Copy Share
Many things embarrass me, but reading isn't one of them. I'm not ashamed of my slightly weird collection of prison memoirs. Nor the flaky… — Tom Rachman Copy Share
