Richard Ben Cramer Quotes

I am guaranteeing you that if you see my byline on a story, it's going to be the cleanest story you've ever read.

I'm pretty rigorous about the drafts I turn in. I don't turn in something that's so ungodly they go, 'What the hell is this?'

From journalism I learned to write under pressure, to work with deadlines, to have limited space and time, to conduct and interview, to find information, to research, and above all, to use language as efficiently as possible and to remember always that there is a reader out there.

Careful writing is important for many reasons, not least that intelligent but hurried reporters will trust the presser, resulting in a cascade of secondary damage.

I am a stickler for damn good writing.

One thing you learn about doing nonfiction is that you've got to get it right, fact-check, do your research. You've got to not only get the facts right but represent the subject to the world in a way that insiders feel like it's an access port and outsiders can access it. If you're too insider, you block access to anyone else.

Well, one thing I'm really interested in, when I'm writing, is being accurate.

Writing is sometimes a balancing act between keeping things easily readable and being accurate.

People know accuracy when they read it; they can feel it.

I mean, I guess you could say I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

Nonfiction requires enormous discipline. You construct the terms of your story, and then you stick to them.

You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length.

It's all about perfection, isn't it?

If uncovering the truth is the greatest challenge of nonfiction writing, it is also the greatest reward.

I'm a matter-of-fact, office-hours writer.

I think the idea of fact-checking, I think the idea that you come up through a system where you know how to cover night cops, and then you go on, and you go on to various beats, including writing obituaries, and you get names right, you know how to spell them, really has some advantages to it.

Nonfiction means that our stories are as true and accurate as possible. Readers expect - demand - diligence.

I cite my vouchers to every passage and I have done my utmost, first to find out the truth, and then to relate it in the clearest order. I have laboured after accuracy; and yet I dare not say that I am without mistake; nor do I desire the reader to conceal any he may possibly find.

Everybody needs an editor.

I take a certain pride in having maintained a reputation for fast copy throughout my newspaper career. Fast-breaking stories left my typewriter in a hurry. Not great literature, perhaps, but fast, and usually accurate.

I write my columns pretty carefully.

The thing I always tell my writing students - I'm not a full-time instructor, by any means, but periodically I've taught writing students - what I always tell them is that the most important thing in narrative nonfiction is that you not only have to have all the research; you have to have about 100% more than you need.

Writing is the easy part. The 'getting it right' part is harder.

My job is to be accurate and clear.