John Jeremiah Sullivan Quotes

The research. It is always the best part of writing. And, of course, it is the great excuse to travel.

I spend a great deal of time on research, on finding all the available accounts of a scene or incident, finding out all the background details and the biographies of the people involved there, and I try to run up all the accounts side by side to see where the contradictions are, and to look where things have gone missing.

I applied for funding to embark on an overseas field trip in Iceland, and spent six weeks there happily holed up in the national archives, museums and libraries, sifting through ministerial and parish records, censuses, maps, microfilm, logs, and local histories.

I had been writing for about twelve years. I knew pretty well how you could find things out, but I had never been trained in an academic way how to go about the research.

To be a good researcher is to be a good detective, and I enjoy ferreting out tidbits of information. For a diary book like 'A Coal Miner's Bride,' newspapers come in handy for small everyday details such as weather reports.

When I'm working on historical books, I'm much more organized. I usually read about 100 books to get the depth of knowledge I need.

The way to do fieldwork is never to come up for air until it is all over.

I use all kinds of resources for researching my novels. I'm not shy about calling up experts and asking questions, or emailing, or buying textbooks and references. The Internet is always a brilliant way to find instant facts, but it's not a great way to really understand your subjects in depth without a lot of work.

The best research you can do is to talk to people.

I read round the subject, I make a skeleton outline, and then I start work in the relevant archives. During the marshaling of the material, I copy the material from each archive file across to the relevant chapter in the skeleton outline.

I have certainly amassed many historical research gathering skills.

In the early days, I promoted the idea of spending time in libraries to gain facts that other investors didn't have. Not many people did that kind of research, so it worked.

I'm big on research. I love research, so I tend to do a lot of reading.

I did a lot of background and research on 'End Of Watch,' and I definitely used certain skills that I learned.

Traditional market researchers are cold and calculating and scientific.

My research process doesn't vary much. I do a little reading to establish a timeline and decide how I'm going to approach the story.

There is no substitute for face-to-face reporting and research.

There is more to folklore research than fieldwork. This is why in all of my other upper-division courses I require a term paper involving original research.

To reconstruct stories and scenes, nonfiction writers must conduct vigorous and responsible research. In fact, narrative requires more research than traditional reportage, for writers cannot simply tell what they learn and know; rather, they must show it.

I have interviewed face-to-face, sitting beside me, over 19,000 people.

A great many decisions just can’t be made with confidence because the data just doesn’t exist …. [however] just because we don’t have the information doesn’t mean that we can’t get it.

I view my job more almost as a field biologist or anthropologist, where I'm collecting practices. I'm collecting techniques.

For me myself, I feel it's always interesting gathering data. I have my team who do that. I think they feed me through specific things that I might find valuable.

The research is the most interesting part… That’s how I work. I go some place and I walk it and I talk to people until I find what I’ve come for. Or not. Fortunately, I tend to find what I’m after.

Experimenters are the shock troops of science.