What Stories About Racial Trauma Leave Out
The poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong depicts the everyday effects of prejudice in a way readers can’t leave behind.
The Frank Bidart Poem That Sums Up How Artists Innovate
In writing, originality doesn’t have to mean rejecting traditional forms.
How Solitude Feeds the Brain
The novelist Jami Attenberg shares a poem that helped her understand her own relationship to isolation.
The Hemingway Scene That Shows How Humanity Works
The novelist Téa Obreht describes how a single surprising image in The Old Man and the Sea sums up the main character's identity.
The Problem With ‘Good’ Taste
Chuck Klosterman, the author of Raised in Captivity, believes that art criticism often has very little to do with the work itself.
A Moby-Dick–Inspired Memoir of Menopause
On a quest to make sense of what was happening to her body, the author Darcey Steinke sought guidance from female killer whales.
The Purgatory That Comes After Losing a Child
When his 2-year-old daughter died, Jayson Greene turned to writing to survive his grief, and to Dante’s Inferno for words to describe it.
What Some of the World’s Last Hunter-Gatherers Have to Say
An ancient saying he learned from his subjects, the Lamalerans, showed the journalist Doug Bock Clark how to tell the story of a tribe with no recorded history.
The Joyce Carol Oates Story That Shares DNA With 'Cat Person’
What the debut writer Kristen Roupenian learned from a masterful tale that dramatizes the horrors of being a young woman
The Closest of All Possible Encounters
John Wray describes how a wilderness survival guide taught him to face his fears while completing his most challenging book yet.
E. B. White’s Lesson for Debut Writers: It’s Okay to Start Small
Nicole Chung explains how an essay about sailing taught her to embrace her fears as she worked up to writing her memoir, All You Can Ever Know.
The Chekhov Sentence That Contains Almost All of Life
Gary Shteyngart dissects one of the “most unexpected” lines in fiction and shares how it influenced his latest novel, Lake Success.
The Powerful Practice of Writing by Hand
The author Laura van den Berg on what inspired her newest novel, The Third Hotel, and how she accesses the part of the mind that fiction comes from
A Writer’s Fixation on Sound
The author R. O. Kwon reflects on the relationship of rhythm to writing and how she stopped obsessing over the first 20 pages of her new novel, The Incendiaries.
What J.D. Salinger Understood About Chance Encounters
A.M. Homes on the short-story writer’s “For Esmé—With Love and Squalor,” and the lifelong effects of fleeting interactions
What Richard Pryor’s Stand-Up Can Teach Writers
The nonfiction author Cutter Wood on how the comedian’s work helped him imbue minor characters with emotional life
How Gabriel García Márquez Created a World in a Sentence
The novelist Mary Morris explains how the opening line of One Hundred Years of Solitude shaped her path as a writer.
Writing a Feminist Novel With a Man’s Point of View
The author Tayari Jones explains what Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon taught her about the centrality of male protagonists in stories that explore female suffering.
The Necessity of 'Willful Blindness' in Writing
The memoirist Terese Marie Mailhot on how Maggie Nelson’s Bluets taught her to explode the parameters of what a book is supposed to be
The Technological Shift Behind the World's First Novel
The author Martin Puchner on the way advances in paper production helped pave the way for The Tale of Genji
What Writers Can Take Away From the Bible
The National Book Award finalist Min Jin Lee on how the story of Joseph, and the idea that goodness can come from suffering, influences her work
Cujo's Unexpected Lesson About Parenting and Art
The comedian and writer John Hodgman explains what Stephen King’s 1981 horror novel taught him about risking mistakes in storytelling—and fatherhood.
How Surrealism Enriches Storytelling About Women
The author Carmen Maria Machado, a finalist for this year’s National Book Award in Fiction, discusses the brilliance of an eerie passage from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.
What Writers Can Learn From Goodnight Moon
The Little Fires Everywhere novelist Celeste Ng explains how the surprising structure of the classic children’s book informs her work.
Jenny Zhang: 'Tiny Stories' Are Vital to Literature
The Sour Heart author discusses Roberto Bolaño’s “Dance Card,” humanizing minor characters through irreverence, and homing in on history’s footnotes.
How Rudyard Kipling Turned His Guilt Into Fiction
The novelist Scott Spencer on the English author’s short story “The Gardener” and what it reveals about transforming shame into art
Finding the Emotional Truth in Horror Writing
The novelist Victor LaValle on how dark material hits hardest when it’s balanced out with wonder
Keeping Track of Every Book You’ve Ever Read
A New York Times editor on the coffee-stained list she’s kept for almost three decades
When Memories Are True Even When They’re Not
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strout discusses Louise Glück’s poem “Nostos” and the powerful way literature can harbor recollection.
When Writing Is Actually About Waiting
Hannah Tinti, the author of The Good Thief, explains what she learned about patience and risk from the T.S. Eliot poem "East Coker."
Colum McCann on Facing the Terror of the Blank Page
The award-winning author discusses the poetry of Wendell Berry, and the importance of abandoning yourself to mystery.
When a Writer’s Great Freedom Lies in Constraint
The memoirist Melissa Febos discusses how an Annie Dillard essay, “Living Like Weasels,” helped refocus her life after overcoming addiction.
The Peculiar Power of a Zadie Smith Sentence
Dissecting a line from the author’s story “The Embassy of Cambodia,” Jonathan Lee questions his own myopia as a novelist.
George Saunders on Chekhov's Different Visions of Happiness
The Lincoln in the Bardo author dissects the Russian writer’s masterful meditations on beauty and sorrow in the short story “Gooseberries,” and explains the importance of questioning your stance while writing.
The Key to Writing a Mystery Is Asking the Perfect Question
The veteran author John Rechy discusses the powerful enigma of William Faulkner and the beauty of the unsolved narrative.
Finding Meaning in Going Nowhere
Ottessa Moshfegh, the author of the novel Eileen, opens up about coping with depression, how writing saved her life, and finding solace in an overlooked song.
Opening Paragraphs Don’t Always Have to Be Exciting
The author Emily Ruskovich discusses the uncanny restraint of Alice Munro and the art of starting a short story.
Making Art at the Painful Margins
What the violent suffering in Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot taught the author Laurie Sheck about finding inspiration in torment and illness
Writing With Infinite Pity
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon discusses what he learned about empathy from Borges’s “The Aleph.”
When Novels Frustrate, and Enthrall
Franz Kafka’s work taught the writer Jonathan Lethem about how to incorporate chaos into narratives.
Writing for an Audience of One
The novelist Nell Zink discusses the psalm that inspired her, and what she learned about the solitary artistic process from her Catholic upbringing.
Emily Dickinson’s Mysterious ‘You’
The poem “Wild Nights! - Wild Nights!” taught the novelist Emma Donoghue about sexuality, ambiguity, and intimacy.
Characters Don't Change, but Readers Do
The novelist and poet Alice Mattison discusses finding inspiration in the unconventional short stories of Grace Paley.
Art Should Be Uncomfortable
For the writer Mark Haddon, Miles Davis’s seminal jazz album Bitches Brew is a reminder of the beauty and power of challenging works.
The Lorax and Literature’s Moral Obligation
Despite critics’ dismissal of activist-minded fiction, the author Lydia Millet believes that Dr. Seuss’s classic children’s book is powerful because of its message, not in spite of it.
To Write, Stop Thinking
The writer Kathryn Harrison believes that words flow best when the opaque, unknowable aspects of the mind take over.
The Deeper Truth of Fiction
Dostoyevsky taught the writer Charles Bock that inventive writing is the most effective way to conjure reality.
When Art Is an Act of Survival
Melissa Broder of So Sad Today finds solace in Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death and in her own creative process.
Can Writing Be Both True and Beautiful?
The author Ethan Canin probes the depths of a single sentence in Saul Bellow’s short story “A Silver Dish.”
Good People Don’t Make Good Characters
Philip Roth taught the author Tony Tulathimutte that writers should aim to show all aspects of their subjects—not only the morally upstanding side.
Alexander Chee on What Writing Parties Reveals About Characters
The author of The Queen of the Night describes how a scene by Charlotte Bronte showed him the dramatic stakes of social interaction in fiction.
The Promise of Flawed Characters
The author Paul Lisicky describes how Flannery O’Connor pulls her subjects apart to make them stronger.
How to Write: A Year in Advice From ‘By Heart’
Highlights from 12 months of interviews with writers about their craft and the authors they love
How Fiction Can Survive in a Distracted World
The writer Kevin Barry believes that the medium’s best hope lies in the mesmerizing power of audio storytelling.
Lorin Stein on the Power of Ambiguity in Fiction
The Paris Review editor discusses why the best stories ask more questions then they answer.
When People—and Characters—Surprise You
Mary Gaitskill, author of The Mare, explains how a single moment in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina reveals its characters’ hidden selves.
‘Stories Are a Living Thing’
The ex-Granta editor John Freeman on how the author Louise Erdrich perfectly interprets Faulkner
Lauren Groff on Writing With Lightness
The Fates and Furies author describes how Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse portrays the span of life.
The Magic of Where the Wild Things Are
The author and illustrator Brian Selznick discusses how Maurice Sendak showed him the power of picture books.
Subverting the Rule of ‘Write What You Know’
The novelist Angela Flournoy discusses how Zora Neale Hurston helped her imagine characters and experiences alien to her.
How Literature Inspires Empathy
The Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Al Aswany explains how one word in Dostoyevsky’s novel The House of the Dead showed him how literature can help us understand one another.
How Writers Can Find Meaning in Nonsense
The author Jesse Ball discusses Lewis Carroll's ‘Jabberwocky’ and how precise prose doesn’t always make for powerful work.
How Writing Achieves Grace
The author Mary-Beth Hughes discusses how Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel The Blue Flower showed her that words can dance.
For Readers, Writing Is a Process of ‘Emotional Osmosis’
The author Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses how his novel The Sympathizer is the product of decades of enjoying other works.
When Writers Put Themselves Into the Story
Joshua Cohen, the author of Book of Numbers, discusses Dostoyevsky’s The Double, in which the author becomes a presence in the novella.
To Write a Great Essay, Think and Care Deeply
The nonfiction writer Lucas Mann offers advice for essayists worried about whether they have anything interesting to say.
Writing Is the Process of Abandoning the Familiar
The novelist and editor Anna North discusses the Odyssey’s timeless lesson about leaving the comforts of home.
Writing Should Be a Continued Exploration
Mark Z. Danielewski discusses how the interplay of words and images can open up new ways of perceiving both literature and the world.
Writers Should Look for What Others Don't See
The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic discusses the importance of noticing hidden truths—from the horrors of war to the mundane aspects of daily life.
Karl Ove Knausgaard on the Power of Brevity
The Norwegian author, known for the multivolume autobiography My Struggle, finds inspiration in the restraint of the tale of Cain and Abel.
How T.C. Boyle Finds His Endings
The author of The Harder They Come adheres to an organic, spontaneous finale-writing process ruled only by his desire to leave readers with room for interpretation.
Laura Marling on Why Writers Should Look Back for Inspiration
The English folk singer-songwriter reveals how an appreciation for humanity's history has informed her art.
What Writers Can Gain From Seeing the World Through Different Eyes
The author Tania James shares a lesson she gleaned from a book about a poacher: The best prose comes from experimenting with new perspectives.
What Writing Has in Common With Happiness
The author Yasmina Reza says that Borges taught her fiction, like joy, is borne of mysterious, instinctual processes achieved in an unconscious state.
The Fine Art of Ambiguous Writing
The author Reif Larsen says Joseph Conrad and Anselm Kiefer taught him how to practice omission without infuriating his readers.
How Writing Fiction Masters Fear
When novelist Harriet Lane received a serious diagnosis, she started telling stories that let her meet anxiety on her own terms.
With Writing, Opportunity Comes From Small Moments
Author Katherine Heiny describes how the best details in fiction can be ripped from small talk and eavesdropped conversations on the bus.
Scott McCloud on the Secret of Humor
The writer draws inspiration from Art Spiegelman's Breakdowns, "a toolkit to think about humor using comics."
With Language, Seeking Out the Sublime
Writer Thomas Pierce finds inspiration in the concise beauty of Theodore Roethke's notebooks.
Mark Ronson on How Fiction Inspired Uptown Special
The songwriter-producer collaborated with author Michael Chabon on his new album.
Shakespeare: One of the First and Greatest Psychologists
Steven Pinker finds insight into the frailty of human nature within Measure for Measure.
Great Writing Is Humble
Peter Stamm, author of All Days Are Night, says his work became deeper once he shed some delusions of grandeur.
The Hidden Labor Behind Food: How to 'Read' a Tomato
The creator of a new documentary outlines how closely farmworkers' lives are connected to what's on grocery-store shelves
Artists Must Be Delusional
American Interior author and rock musician Gruff Rhys learned a lot by following in footsteps of a gullible pioneer.
Write to Transcend Space and Time
Reading Lolita in Tehran author Azar Nafisi says the best books are "republics of imagination" erasing national and historic boundaries.
The First Sentence Is a Handshake
According to science fiction writer William Gibson, a book's opening should be an inviting enigma to the reader—and a motivational benchmark for the writer.
The Joy of the Memorized Poem
A panicked moment reciting William Butler Yeats in an MRI convinced the former poet laureate Billy Collins that oration is poetry's last, most enlightened defense.
'Realism Is a Figure of Speech'
Ernest Hemingway's matter-of-fact style taught author Vikram Chandra to find sublime in the ordinary, and depth in deceptively flat prose.
'Writing Is an Exercise in Freedom'
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley looks to Our Mutual Friend for inspiration on how to harness the spontaneous, liberating energy that comes from writing imagery.
A 50-Year Protest for Good Writing
A crisis of quality in literary criticism led Robert Silvers to found The New York Review of Books—and he believes the crisis continues today, online.
David Mitchell on How to Write: ‘Neglect Everything Else’
The Cloud Atlas author keeps a James Wright poem as a reminder to live in the now.
Jeff Tweedy's Subconscious Songwriting
The Wilco singer says Daniel Johnston epitomizes his mostly instinctual creative process.
Write Like the Handmaid
Novelist Edan Lepucki looks to the subversive metaphors in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale for lessons in channeling characters' weird, rebellious spirits.
Envision the Novel Like a Museum
Using the guard-turned-vandal in The Heart So White as his guide, author Ben Lerner writes books in which characters interact with art, and occasionally try to set it on fire.
Writers Should Examine Everything, Even the Supermarket
Author Stephan Eirik Clark returns to Don DeLillo's White Noise for lessons in interrogating American culture.
Honest Writing Is Funny Writing
Memoirist Sean Wilsey says he knows he's finished with a story when it makes him laugh.
The Miracle of Writing
A Midsummer Night's Dream got it right, Richard Bausch says: Authors must find a way to turn nothing into something.
Confronting Reality by Reading Fantasy
Author Lev Grossman says C.S. Lewis taught him that in fiction, stepping into magical realms means encountering earthly concerns in transfigured form.
Don't Write for the Barbarians
Hot Chip singer Alexis Taylor explains why he tries to forget critics—and his own self-consciousness—when creating.
Writers Can Do Anything
William T. Vollmann, author of Last Stories and Other Stories, explains why he works by an assassin's credo: "Nothing is true; all is permissible."
Taking Sides in the Great Literary Divide Between Nabokov and Roth
Author Joshua Ferris used to believe in 'art for art's sake.' Then he read The Human Stain.
The Leftovers, Our Town, and the Brutal Power of Ordinary Details
Author Tom Perrotta, co-creator of a much-hyped new HBO drama, says Thornton Wilder's play taught him to write about finding meaning in the banal.
The Brilliant Nonsense of Elvis Lyrics
Songwriting lessons from the King, as told by indie-rock singer Hamilton Leithauser
The Surprising Power of Stories That Are Shorter Than Short Stories
Author Stuart Dybek talks about how to layer meaning into works of "flash fiction."
What Writers Must Do: 'Love People'
Author Rupert Thomson says a Yevgeny Yevtushenko poem taught him the value of risk.
'Writing Almost Feels Like Method Acting'
The UnAmericans author Molly Antopol learned from Grace Paley how to inhabit characters that represent political sentiments but don't preach to readers.
How John Muir Is Revolutionizing the Farm-to-Table Food Movement
Yes, that John Muir. His observations on nature's interconnected systems deeply influenced award-winning chef Dan Barber's new book, The Third Plate.
What Zadie Smith Taught Roxane Gay: Identity Is Drag
Gay, author of An Untamed State and the forthcoming Bad Feminist, sees her own questions of multi-ethnic and multi-national identity reflected in Smith's NW.
How Creativity Could Save Humanity
Stefan Zweig, the obscure Austrian writer whose life and work inspired The Grand Budapest Hotel, believed imagination could help propel society toward universal tolerance and accord.
The Epic Drama of the Imperfect Love Story
Author Mona Simpson talks about Chekhov's "Three Years," which plays on rom-com tropes to convey just how grand a story of two people learning to appreciate each other can be.
Before You Can Write a Good Plot, You Need to Write a Good Place
Author Linn Ulmann makes the case for the importance of here in "Something happened here."
Why Every Writer Needs Two Educations
Marcus Burke, author of Team Seven and a former college athlete, learned from Carter G. Woodson that teaching yourself is just as important as being taught in the classroom.
'What Plot Is Grander or More Essential Than Time Passing?'
Maggie Shipstead, author of Astonish Me, looks to Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse as an example of how to speed up and slow down fiction narratives effectively.
'We Sweat, Crave, and Itch All Day': Why Writing About Bodies Is Vital
The Empathy Exams author Leslie Jamison felt ashamed of writing about the physical form until a Virginia Woolf essay vindicated her interest in the fluids and muscles that make us human.
How to Write a Believable Happy Ending
As author Ted Thompson learned from John Cheever, a redemptive resolution doesn't erase the darkness of a story, but instead finds the light within it.
'Words on Paper Will Outlast Us': How Claire Messud Distills Her Life
The author of The Woman Upstairs says that writing preserves the worlds we inhabit—even if so much of them dies with us.
'I Don't Believe in Writer's Block'
John Steinbeck’s To a God Unknown showed author Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski that great work can happen when you write without knowing where you're going.
How Novels Widen Your Vision
Author Dinaw Mengestu says good books help you to recognize yourself in the unfamiliar.
An Uncomfortable Trick for Honest Writing: Staring at Strangers
Author Yiyun Li doesn't just study people on the subway—she studies her characters, unflinchingly imagining their gaze until she understands them fully.
Why You Never Truly Finish a Book
Thirty Girls author Susan Minot says great writing—like T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"—is a source of nourishment readers turn to again and again.
Alice Munro's Writerly Wisdom: Short Stories Aren't Small Stories
The Nobel Prize winner is a role model for writers looking to bridge the personal, domestic details of the short story with the global forces of history, author Kyle Minor says.
What Great Artists Need: Solitude
The lesson author Dorthe Nors took from Ingmar Bergman: It's not drugs, poverty, or wild lovers that make a great writer. It's discipline and time alone.
Why Marriage Is the Start of an 'Epic,' According to George Eliot
Rebecca Mead, New Yorker staff writer and author of My Life in Middlemarch, shares what Eliot's Middlemarch taught her about love, marriage, and journalism.
'Life Keeps Changing': Why Stories, Not Science, Explain the World
Author and journalist Jennifer Percy was a committed physics major until a Lawrence Sargent Hall story showed her a more satisfying way to approach life's complexities.
What It Really Means to Be 'Kafkaesque'
Author Ben Marcus says the beautiful but sorrowful strangeness of Kafka's "A Message from the Emperor" make it a perfect piece of writing.
'It Has to Come to You': Why Jim Harrison Writes Patiently
The veteran author says Theodore Roethke's poetry is a reminder that sometimes you're hot, sometimes you're not.
How to Write: A Year in Advice from Franzen, King, Hosseini, and More
Highlights from 12 months of interviews with writers about their craft and the authors they love
Amy Tan's Lonely, 'Pixel-by-Pixel' Writing Method
Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" helps remind the Joy Luck Club author to capture the "microscopic" details that make her characters unique.
How Aimee Bender Feels After Memorizing a Poem: 'Caffeinated'
Committing the words of Wallace Stevens to memory unlocked an emotional and physical magic within her, Bender says.
'You Begin to Breathe Again': Samuel Beckett's Humor as a Coping Mechanism
Author Paul Auster says Beckett shows how important laughter is in writing.
One Way to Keep Writing: 'Remember Death'
Russell Banks's biggest inspiration isn't another author—it's a gravestone inscription lurking near his desk.
The 'Stubborn Gladness' of Elizabeth Gilbert's Favorite Poet
The Eat, Pray, Love author celebrates the late Jack Gilbert, whose works challenge readers to find joy within suffering.
Should Literature Be Personal or Political?
Bob Shacochis confronts the tension between exploring the everyday "frivolity" of our private worlds and making broad statements about the one we share.
'Stephen King Saved My Life'
Young-adult novelist Robin Wasserman says the famous horror writer empowered her as a teen reader by capturing the uneasy teenage phase between childhood and adulthood.
The Poem That Made Sherman Alexie Want to 'Drop Everything and Be a Poet'
Alexie never thought he could leave his reservation to pursue a writing career—but a line written by Adrian C. Louis taught him to venture outside the "reservation of his mind."
The Case for Writing a Story Before Knowing How It Ends
Andre Dubus III, author of Dirty Love and The House of Sand and Fog, explains why the best work happens when you "back the fuck off."
Jonathan Franzen on the 19th-Century Writer Behind His Internet Skepticism
His new book translates works by Karl Kraus, whose misgivings toward progress mirror Franzen's belief that technology can be "very harmful" to artistic production.
'How Dare It Make Me Feel So Much': The Spell of F. Scott Fitzgerald
Author Ron Carlson was an unassuming, baseball-playing college student until a Fitzgerald story turned him into an impassioned English-major library vandal.
'Think About Characters Like a Sphere': How John Cheever Wrote Inner Turmoil
Novelist Paul Harding explains what Cheever's short story "The Jewels of the Cabots" taught him about portraying humans' contradictory impulses.
Two Tacos for A Moveable Feast: A Writer's Life-Changing Barter in Tijuana
In 1972, Daniel Woodrell traded part of his lunch for a copy of Ernest Hemingway's posthumous novel. After he read it, he became determined to be a writer.
‘All Immigrants Are Artists’
Edwidge Danticat, author of Claire of the Sea Light, believes that "re-creating your entire life is a form of reinvention on par with the greatest works of literature."
'This Did Something Powerful to Me': Authors' Favorite First Lines of Books
Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Atwood, David Gilbert, Roxane Gay, and other writers share their thoughts on what makes an inviting and memorable opening sentence.
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Why Stephen King Spends 'Months and Even Years' Writing Opening Sentences
The author of horror classics like The Shining and its 2013 sequel Doctor Sleep says the best writers hook their readers with voice, not just action.
Ira Glass's Favorite Part of David Rakoff's Last Writings
The radio host accompanied his friend and collaborator to a dance-company show five months before his death in 2012—and inspired a passage in Rakoff's newly published book.
The Humanist Message Hidden Amid the Violence of One Thousand and One Nights
Hanan al-Shaykh, author of The Story of Zahra and Beirut Blues, puts new emphasis on the lessons about compassion in Shahrazad's—or Scheherazade's—famous stories.
'You're a Parasite': The Stark Morals of James Agee's Great Depression Essay
Cotton Tenants, the long-lost magazine story that led to And Now Let Us Praise Famous Men, finally sees publication—at a time when its message seems more urgent than ever.
There's No Such Thing as Good Writing: Craig Nova's Radical Revising Process
The author of All the Dead Yale Men doesn't just tweak when he rewrites—he tries on entirely new points of view and genre styles to learn more about the story he's telling.
The Way Vivid, Way Underappreciated Short Stories of Mavis Gallant
Author Peter Orner pays tribute to of one of the past century's great character builders.
Marcus Aurelius's One Question to Beat Procrastination, Whining, and Struggle
Author Jessica Francis Kane explains how the Roman emperor's words about perseverance have helped her career.
Even Khaled Hosseini Can't Tell Stories as Effectively as He Wants To
The author of The Kite Runner and And the Mountains Echoed touts the introduction of Stephen King's "The Body" as a poignant encapsulation of an author's limitations.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road May Have the Scariest Passage in All of Literature
Benjamin Percy, author of Red Moon, makes the case.
When a Sentence Changes Your Life—Then Changes Its Own Meaning
Author Anthony Marra read new meaning into a line from Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son, years after that line had altered the way Marra thought about writing.
The Wendell Berry Sentence That Inspired Michael Pollan's Food Obsession
For Pollan, "eating is an agricultural act" offers more insight into how food relates to the world than Thoreau or Emerson's words ever could.
The Storytelling Lesson Contained in a Sentence About the Hindenburg
Fiona Maazel, the author of Woke Up Lonely and Last Last Chance, shares her favorite passage from her former teacher Jim Shepard.
'It Was to Know a Kind of Rage': V.S. Naipaul on the Cost of Learning History
Author Aatish Taseer, a chronicler of young Muslims, shares his favorite Naipaul passage.
The Hidden Poetic Genius of an Old, English Nursery Rhyme
Novelist Jim Crace, whose prose has been analyzed by mathematicians for its rhythm, learned his technique from the childhood counting game 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor.'
A Belated Apology to Anton Chekhov
Author Steven Barthelme shares how he came to appreciate 'Lady With Lapdog.'
'Joy & Woe Are Woven Fine': William Blake's Words for the Grieving
'Drinking With Men' author Rosie Schaap found this poem when she needed it most.
The Defiant, Optimistic Russian Poetry That Inspires Ayana Mathis
The 'Twelve Tribes of Hattie' author shares her thoughts on a 1937 work by Osip Mandelstam. Plus: a song!