The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “zadie smith”

Why We Write: Mary Karr on the Magnetism and Madness of the Written Word
Why We Write: Mary Karr on the Magnetism and Madness of the Written Word

“Be willing to be a child and be the Lilliputian in the world of Gulliver.”

read article

H.P. Lovecraft’s Advice to Aspiring Writers: Timeless Counsel from 1920
H.P. Lovecraft’s Advice to Aspiring Writers: Timeless Counsel from 1920

“Popular magazines inculcate a careless and deplorable style which is hard to unlearn… If such things must be read, let them be skimmed over as lightly as possible.”

read article

What Will Survive of Us Is Love: Helen Dunmore’s 9 Rules of Writing
What Will Survive of Us Is Love: Helen Dunmore’s 9 Rules of Writing

“A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.”

read article

So You Want To Be a Writer: Charles Bukowski’s No-Nonsense Antidote to the “Tortured Genius” Mythos of Creativity
So You Want To Be a Writer: Charles Bukowski’s No-Nonsense Antidote to the “Tortured Genius” Mythos of Creativity

“unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don’t do it.”

read article

Margaret Atwood’s 10 Rules of Writing
Margaret Atwood’s 10 Rules of Writing

“­Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.”

read article

How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word
How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word

“The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not.”

read article

F. Scott Fitzgerald on the Secret to Great Writing: Letters of Advice to a Friend’s Teenage Daughter and to His Own
F. Scott Fitzgerald on the Secret to Great Writing: Letters of Advice to a Friend’s Teenage Daughter and to His Own

“Nothing any good isn’t hard.”

read article

Joy Williams on Why Writers Write
Joy Williams on Why Writers Write

“A writer loves the dark, loves it, but is always fumbling around in the light.”

read article

Why I Write: Joan Didion on Ego, Grammar, and the Creative Impulse
Why I Write: Joan Didion on Ego, Grammar, and the Creative Impulse

“Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write.”

read article

Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing
Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing

“Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.”

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)