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'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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pinguino k / CC 2.0 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.
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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.
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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.
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'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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Cormac McCarthy's The Road May Have the Scariest Passage in All of Literature
Benjamin Percy, author of Red Moon, makes the case.
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Doug McLean 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.
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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.
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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.
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'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.
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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.'
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A Belated Apology to Anton Chekhov
Author Steven Barthelme shares how he came to appreciate 'Lady With Lapdog.'
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The Marilynne Robinson Paragraph That Helped Dina Nayeri Handle Loss
Reading a passage about the unresolved desire to fill the empty spaces in a life helped the author understand her own grief.
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'Lights Have Entered Us': George Oppen's Words About Hope in Grief
A George Oppen poem about bereavement amazes poet Jeffrey Yang, and even connected him to a fellow poet.
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Get Fit With Haruki Murakami: Why Mohsin Hamid Exercises, Then Writes
The author benefited from adopting Murakami's philosophy of prioritizing fitness in order to maximize creativity.
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Imagine Sisyphus Happy: How Camus Helps Fay Weldon Keep on Writing
The prolific author remembers a quote from Albert Camus about the Greek myth of King Sisyphus when she gets discouraged.
