Max Weber Quotes

The best writers who have put pen to paper have often had a journalism background.

Fiction writing and journalism, in my experience, are really excellent training grounds for each other.

I knew I would read all kinds of books and try to get at what it is that makes good writers good. But I made no promises that I would write books a lot of people would like to read.

I had the most incredible English and literature teachers in school, and it really influenced my love of storytelling. It's what made me excited to study journalism in college. I love editorials and documentaries. All of that came from being given the opportunity to lose myself in good writing when I was a kid.

I'm not famous for my back story investigations; I'm lucky that I work with good writers and it's usually in the script.

Every time I've had to do journalistic investigations, I've cursed, but later I discovered that it had helped me enormously with writing fiction. It's the one thing that can save me from becoming an academic writer.

If you are a good writer - and I think I am - you are able to handle any kind of group and imagine their lives.

A good writer is always a people watcher.

Although I write screenplays, I don't think I'm a very good writer.

Journalism is a team sport. Writing novels is golf: it's you and the ball.

Every writer should be able to write anything if you do the research and you're sensitive enough to ask the questions.

I think part of the reason anyone goes into journalism is to get a response to what they write.

I never take ideas from the headlines. I feel that if a story is good enough, a real story that is, then it's already been covered by the media, and if it's not good enough, why would I want to bother with it?

Good writing of course requires talent, and no one can teach you to have talent.

Read and write with a sensitive ear. The craft of writing is very important. Practice the craft.

See, I have no journalism in my background, so I wasn't practised at research or writing non-fiction, nor at handling the truth in a journalistic way. Journalists know when to call a halt and write something, but I kept on looking for answers.

I find having a column a very difficult form of journalism. I'm not a natural like Tom Friedman and Anna Quindlen.

I'm very happy with the way I write. I think I do it good. But I've never really considered myself a writer.

Writers - all writers, even screenwriters - like to make their mark. I don't think many screenwriters can write. They pass as writers.

I understand the difference between journalism and scholarship that comes 20 years later.

Being a journalist is good if you want to write books: it teaches you to get beyond the blank screen. My books have been described as froth, but there's scope to be witty and ironic about everything in life.

I am, really, a great writer; my only difficulty is in finding great readers.

Writing is really hard, and it's really a skill.

I love to run smart essays and commentary. But it doesn't replace the other kind of reporting.

I think journalism is useful training for a writer in the way it takes the preciousness out of the pragmatic side of the craft.