William Finnegan

The differences between the received wisdom, the standard version of events, and the facts on the ground may be subtle or they…

— William Finnegan

Writing is pretty flexible work, don't you think? If you want to surf, you just have to get a lot done when…

— William Finnegan

You're after something - not a story, but a certain, exquisitely intense encounter with beauty - and the only way to find…

— William Finnegan

“When I finally came in and complained, she tried to explain, not for the first time, how exquisitely boring it was to…

— William Finnegan

It's completely different, for instance, to report on poor farmers in Africa than it is to report on, say, poor African-Americans. The…

— William Finnegan

“Surfing, to begin with, was not a “sport.” It was a “path.” And the more you poured into it, the more you…

— William Finnegan

“I later spent a year studying Finnegans Wake with Norman O. Brown, an exercise in masturbatory obscurantism that Bryan would never have…

— William Finnegan

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…

— William Finnegan

I need to conduct myself differently in different communities. In my experience, the journalistic conventions - you know, I'm the reporter, you're…

— William Finnegan

There are good waves not that far from Manhattan - on Long Island, in north Jersey. It's true that the best surf…

— William Finnegan

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…

— William Finnegan

I remember surfing in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, even Madeira, when local fishermen had never seen a surfboard before, and refused to believe…

— William Finnegan

Even wars, big conflicts that have drawn a lot of news coverage, sometimes seem to me to have a center that hasn't…

— William Finnegan

As I travelled around Australia, strangers in pubs, on airplanes, in beach parking lots would bring up Gina Rinehart, not knowing I…

— William Finnegan

“Being friends as in writing letters was so much easier than being friends as in living together.”

— William Finnegan

I always wanted to write. While I was on a long surf trip, supporting myself with various day jobs, I was working…

— William Finnegan

I've felt afraid as a reporter many times. Sometimes it's sharp, as in a bad moment, or a bad situation; other times…

— William Finnegan

“Everything out there was disturbingly interlaced with everything else. Waves were the playing field. They were the goal. They were the object…

— William Finnegan

Memoir is a weird genre for a reporter. You end up investigating your own memories, reporting out your past.

— William Finnegan

It's so much harder than it looks - to conjure a fictional world that some passing wolf of skepticism can't just blow…

— William Finnegan

Mandela's political evolution was gradual.

— William Finnegan

“It was marijuana that drew the line between us and them, that bright generational line between the cool and the uncool. My…

— William Finnegan

For billionaires who cannot buy good press, there is the option of buying the press.

— William Finnegan

Inequality is on the rise.

— William Finnegan

Rich white people show up in a poor country to pursue their leisure-time fun, get served by black and brown people, and…

— William Finnegan