Susan Orlean
“For a kid, having a Halloween birthday really makes you feel unique, and being a red-head, you are unique…From the time I could think about who I was, I felt that I was not like everyone else.” Only Halloween could birth one of history’s most successful red-headed writers. With a knack for quirky,...
Cory Doctorow
“L. Ron Hubbard does not have the neurological excuse for the declining quality of his work. I think it can only be attributed to the fact that he was a colossal asshole.” Cory Doctorow attended four universities but never completed a degree. Today, the Toronto native is a wildly successful sci-fi writer, journalist, and...
Charles Bowden
“I got messages, threats, delivered two or three times. You never take those seriously. The people who are going to kill you don’t send messages, they send bullets.” Patagonia, Arizona boasts one the best bird watching experiences in the world. It’s a place American writer Charles Bowden loves to frequent. When I reach him by...
William Langewiesche
“I’ve come close to the possibility of getting killed occasionally…I’ve been mortared, I’ve had a house destroyed by rockets, I’ve been chuck bombed, I’ve been shot at. But whatever, it’s not very frightening. ” William Langewiesche is a very lucky man. Not because he’s escaped death countless times, but because he was in the line...
Gay Talese
“When you’re wearing a great suit you don’t feel it, it fits you so perfectly because it’s measured again and again to achieve a finality. That’s what good writing is, it’s well tailored.” For the past 50 plus years, Gay Talese has been meticulously and painstakingly fashioning hundreds and thousands of words together. The...
Robert Fowler
“Celine Dion has a huge international following…So, it isn’t surprising that a Senegalese man would know of, and admire, her. But, to have this come from an Al-Qaeda captor in the Sahara Desert, some weeks into our captivity, was so bizarre.” Anyone who can use the words “Celine Dion,” “Al-Qaeda,” and “captivity” to...
Michela Wrong
“‘Use a condom’, and ‘Don’t eat any salads’. I think that’s the best advice you can give anyone in Africa. “ After nearly 19 years reporting on some of the most dire situations in Africa, it’s great to see that British journalist and author Michela Wrong still has a sense of humour. As a...
Peter Greste
“You break down every major conflict on this continent, and you’ll find at the very root of it the same thing. I think that’s one of the things, collectively, journalists have let the world down in. It’s been lazy, cliche journalism that has led to some gross misunderstanding of what’s going on here.” Bulletproof...
Jeff Koinange
“Look, it’s been four years and a lot has happened in my life in that time, not least of which has been rebuilding my journalism career from ‘scratch’. That’s taken a lot of hard work and sacrifice, and every day is a reminder that “you’re only as good as your last story.” It seems fitting...
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