Explore Essays and memoir
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Field Burning
William Wharton
‘I thought after what had happened to us in the past twenty-four hours I’d never be scared to die again, but I am.’
First Sentence: Javier Zamora
Javier Zamora
‘Immigration has become a physical thing, like a tumor inside us, between us.’
Five are the fingers, and five are the sins
Rebecca Watson
Rebecca Watson on the life of the man who prototyped fascism, the Italian writer Gabriele D’Annunzio
Forbidden Games
Tia Wallman
‘We do not understand why, nor did we covet such long life, but here we are, our respective addictions and madness with us to the end.’
Fortune
Tobias Wolff
‘We’d left Sarasota in the dead of summer, right after my tenth birthday, and headed west under low flickering skies that turned black and exploded and cleared just long enough to leave the air gauzy with steam.’
Frank’s Place
Richard Williams
‘Marilyn Monroe spent a couple of nights at the Cal-Neva. Sinatra knew she was in a bad way.’
Getting The Words Out
John Updike
‘No, it is not confrontation but some wish to avoid it, some hasty wish to please, that betrays my flow of speech.’
Here Come the Tanks
Patrick Wright
‘In these civilian circumstances, unhampered by any opposition from aircraft, landmines, artillery or other tanks, the tank seems unstoppable.’
Holy Solitude
Kong Yalei
‘I always think, either as a reader or as a writer, one person – anyone – can struggle against this filthy world by entering into a world of literature.’
Home: Peckham
Evie Wyld
‘Peckham is the place of my adolescence, my first cobbled together attempts at dressing myself from the charity shops on Rye Lane.’
Hotel Haunting
Joanna Walsh
‘There was a time in my life when I lived in hotels. Around this time, the time I did not spend in hotels was time I did not live.’