Comfortable Quote by Anne Fadiman

What I think is important about essayists, about the essay as opposed to a lot of personal writing is that the material has to…

— Meghan Daum

I never start with what lots of people think of as a subject or a theme. They're school words, not art words. So, writing…

— Tim Winton

I knew how to write like an academic, so I knew how to write academic papers and essays and things. But the things that…

— Tara Westover

The essays are very solipsistic and self-absorbed, I'm totally conscious of that. To me, book writing is fun, and I basically just write about…

— Chuck Klosterman

I aspire to write what are called 'familiar essays.' They begin in the personal and end in the universal. It's not for me to…

— David Rakoff

I think it's hard to have a full-time job and write fiction, but for essays, you need to be in the world.

— Sloane Crosley

I write essays first because I have a passionate relationship to the subject and second because the subject is one that people are not…

— Susan Sontag

An essay is a thing of the imagination. If there is information in an essay, it is by-the-by, and if there is an opinion,…

— Cynthia Ozick

If you want to be a writer, don't worry so much about writing. Read as much as you can. Read as many different writers…

— R. L. Stine

Write for yourself, not for a perceived audience. If you do, you'll mostly fall flat on your face, because it's impossible to judge what…

— Wilbur Smith

As a writer, you have to first of all write what you want to. Listen to advice, by all means, but don't get bogged…

— Joe Abercrombie

Starting writing is stressful and scary and hard, but also, it's just like going to the gym. You're just stiff and weird, and you…

— Tamara Jenkins