Explore Essays and memoir
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When Did I Become a Writer?
Mia Couto
‘I am often asked when I became a writer, and I have taken to not rushing my answer.’
Ann Beattie | First Sentence
Ann Beattie
‘Several times I’ve wanted to title something one thing, but have realized or been persuaded it isn’t a good idea.’
New New World
Peter Conrad
‘I left Australia at the age of twenty, carrying with me everything I thought I would need.’
God and Me
Diana Athill
‘Perhaps it’s just that the human mind is incapable of imagining anything that doesn’t begin.’
An Education
Lynn Barber
‘The whole meeting seemed completely unreal but then everything at that time seemed unreal, so I said ‘Yes, by all means make the film,’ and went back to the hospital and forgot about her.’
How to Read the Comics
Ariel Dorfman
‘Unlike the other comic strips in the magazine, ‘The Adventures of Mampato’ was conceived, illustrated, and entirely produced in Chile.’
Rabih Alameddine | Portrait of My Father
Rabih Alameddine
‘I come from a family that hangs pictures of family on its walls.’
People Don’t Get Depressed in Nigeria
Ike Anya
‘He has come to us against the wishes of his family and the village and I feel that I owe him something.’
Means of Transport
John Berger
‘Use these photos as means of transport. Ride on them. No passes needed. Go close. Imprudently close. They leave every minute.’
John Berger on images of violent dispossession from South Africa and Lesotho.
Under Eastern Eyes
Timothy Garton Ash
‘They sit around, feet in slippers, drinking wine and swapping jokes about Chernobyl. They have just produced the best journal of new writing in Czechoslovakia. It took about twenty minutes.’
Glitches
John Gregory Dunne
‘I prefer not to speculate about what might have happened if I had not taken the ECG.’
