Speaking generally, I think it's useful to acknowledge explicitly the power imbalance between a journalist and the protagonists in a story about poor people, even to make that imbalance part of the story - and to redress it, narratively, where… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
The differences between the received wisdom, the standard version of events, and the facts on the ground may be subtle or they may be… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
Writing is pretty flexible work, don't you think? If you want to surf, you just have to get a lot done when the waves… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
You're after something - not a story, but a certain, exquisitely intense encounter with beauty - and the only way to find it is… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
“When I finally came in and complained, she tried to explain, not for the first time, how exquisitely boring it was to watch surfing.… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
It's completely different, for instance, to report on poor farmers in Africa than it is to report on, say, poor African-Americans. The familiarity of my readers with the terrain, and their preconceptions, are quite different in those two cases, and their perspective, as I imagine it, has to be taken into account at every turn. — William Finnegan Copy Share
“Surfing, to begin with, was not a “sport.” It was a “path.” And the more you poured into it, the more you got back… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
“I later spent a year studying Finnegans Wake with Norman O. Brown, an exercise in masturbatory obscurantism that Bryan would never have undertaken—and he… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
Poor-country surf communities can be complex and, to some extent, leveling. The fisherman's kid is competing head to head with the plutocrat's gilded son.… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
I need to conduct myself differently in different communities. In my experience, the journalistic conventions - you know, I'm the reporter, you're the subject,… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
There are good waves not that far from Manhattan - on Long Island, in north Jersey. It's true that the best surf around here… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
I'm trying to find out what's actually true, which is nearly always something, if not a world of things, that you can't read in… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
I remember surfing in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, even Madeira, when local fishermen had never seen a surfboard before, and refused to believe that we… — William Finnegan Copy Share Image
