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Zadie Smith writing lit culture and society history and literature thought and opinion interviews amwriting

When I’m reading I consider it an activity as difficult as writing… It’s a challenge to your whole self. I love writing that is respectful of the human capacity to understand.

Wonderful interview with Zadie Smith. Couple with Smith’s 10 rules of writing (most of which apply to reading and to life itself), then see beloved writers’ letters to children about why we read.

Lewis Thomas language writing lit history and literature

It is almost always a greater pleasure to come across a semicolon than a period. The period tells you that that is that; if you didn’t get all the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with a semicolon there you get a pleasant little feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer.

Notes on Punctuation – a charming meditation on the subtleties of language by the great physician, etymologist, poet, and essayist Lewis Thomas.

Audre Lorde quote thought and opinion cancer culture and society civil rights writing lit history and literature

Audre Lorde, in the wake of her cancer diagnosis, on turning fear into fire for art, activism, and life, in excerpts from her diaries.

Rachel Carson sustainability writing lit history and literature women in science women in STEM marine biology advice quote thought and opinion

Marine biologist and writer Rachel Carson, who catalyzed the modern environmental movement, on writing and the loneliness of the creative life.

Rachel Carson writing lit creativity and innovation advice

Magnificent advice on writing and the loneliness of creative work from the woman who catalyzed the modern environmental movement.

Alice Munro writing lit history and literature

A story … has a sturdy sense of itself of being built out of its own necessity, not just to shelter or beguile you.

Nobel-winning writer Alice Munro, who turns 86 today, on the secret to a great story.

Gwendolyn Brooks lit history and literature poetry black history writing

Gwendolyn Brooks, the first black writer to win a Pulitzer Prize, was born 100 years ago today. Here is her lovely 1969 ode to why we read.

Susan Sontag writing lit history and literature advice culture and society

Susan Sontag on storytelling, what it means to be a moral human being, and her timeless advice to writers.

Neil Gaiman writing storytelling lit The Moth history and literature

Neil Gaiman, one of the great storytellers of our time, on how to tell a true tale and what makes a great personal story.

Ursula K. Le Guin writing lit storytelling quotes history and literature thought and opinion

Ursula K. Le Guin on how storytelling helps us assemble ourselves – wonderful read.

Donald Barthelme writing lit history and literature thought and opinion art and design art

Donald Barthelme, born on this day in 1931, on the art of not-knowing and the essential not-knowing of art.

E.B. White International Children's Book Day children's books writing lit

For International Children’s Book Day, E.B. White on the key to writing for children and the writer’s responsibility to all readers.

Oliver Sacks writing lit science and technology science

Inside Oliver Sacks’s Creative Process – the beloved neurologist and writer’s never-before-seen handwritten notes on writing, creativity, and the brain.

Gabriel García Márquez writing lit history and literature

If you’re going to be a writer you have to be one of the great ones… After all, there are better ways to starve to death.

Gabriel García Márquez, who would’ve been 90 today, on his unlikely beginnings as a writer.

John Steinbeck lit history and literature art and design writing thought and opinion

Nobel laureate John Steinbeck, born on this day in 1902, on the creative spirit and the meaning of human life.