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Explore Essays and memoir

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.’

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.’

How to Fly

John Burnside

‘I flew for the first time when I was nine years old.’

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.’

Inside Intelligence

Anthony Cavendish

‘Good heavens, old boy! It isn't the Russians we worry about; it's the British public that we don't want to know about it.’

Under Ice

Iain Banks

‘Andy runs out across the ice.‘

It Don’t Mean a Thing

Paul Auster

‘The single inhabitant of an asteroid that orbits around a tertiary moon of Pluto, visible only through the strongest telescope.’

Trouble at the Waterworks

Edward Blishen

‘Old age is a sustained process of injury. You are being very distinctly shot at.’