“History - the non-fiction version - must inform the fiction to make it truthful; too much of it and your genres are colliding.” FictionToo MuchVersionsGenreTruthfulNon Fiction Author:Jon Weisman
“The professions of novelist and journalist are very separate. As a novelist, you are ultimately working for yourself. Yes, you need the approval of a publisher and an audience, but what is valued in fiction writing - style, individual voice, insight - is scorned by the editor who is combing through your newspaper article.” NeedsWritingIndividualVoiceFictionAudienceStyleInsightProfessionNewspapersJournalistNovelistsEditorsArticlesApprovalPublishersFiction WritingWriting StyleScorned Author:Jon Weisman
“I was very disciplined when home - lights out for the girls at 9:00, two hours of writing for me. It was murder on my marriage.” WritingTwoHomeLightGirlHoursMurder Author:Jon Weisman
“There is, in my mind, no higher compliment to pay a non-fiction book than to say it reads like a novel.” MindBookPayFictionNovelHigherComplimentNon Fiction Author:Jon Weisman
“It is simply much easier to infuse life, feeling, and higher truth into a novel than a non-fiction work, to find the license to write truth without being wedded to fact.” WritingFactsFeelingsFictionNovelHigherEasierLicenseNon Fiction Author:Jon Weisman
“Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, but usually fiction is just better.” SometimesFictionTruth IsStrangerStranger Than Fiction Author:Jon Weisman
“One of the great sadnesses of my life, as I take stock at middle age, is the sense that the adventure largely ended by the time I was twenty-five.” AgeFiveSadnessMiddleAdventureTwentiesMiddle AgesTwenty Five Author:Jon Weisman
“I am not trying to be young again. But I do feel the need to capture that energy in story form before it slips from my mind, to recount those adventures if not relive them.” IfsNeedsFeelsTryingMindStoriesFormYoungEnergyAdventureCaptureSlipsBe Young Author:Jon Weisman
“I have always had a hard time revising my work as a journalist, which was never much of a problem. You always have editors as backstops. Their job is to perfect your story. Most of them want to be useful.” WantHardStoriesProblemJobsPerfectJournalistHard TimesEditorsRevising Author:Jon Weisman
“Novelists may be able to seek advice from readers and editors, but in the end, it is up to them to get the book right.” MayBookEndsAbleAdviceReaderNovelistsEditors Author:Jon Weisman
“I hope I will get to novelize my present circumstances at some point. I have some great stories to tell.” StoriesCircumstances Author:Jon Weisman
“I have prided myself with striving for objectivity, something many literary-minded critics dismiss as impossible. But in Washington, reporters are practically the only people who actually spend time talking to Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and I find the longer I report in Washington, the mushier and less conclusive my own views are. I like it that way.” PeopleWayMy OwnViewsTalkingImpossibleRepublicanDemocratCriticsStriveReportsReportersEnd TimesSpend TimeObjectivity Author:Jon Weisman
“For all the worship that Ronald Reagan elicits in conservative circles in the United States, I would venture that Thatcher did far more to reshape British society than Reagan did here.” StatesUnitedUnited StatesWorshipConservativeBritishCirclesVenture Author:Jon Weisman
“Thatcher had broken the miners' union, all but crushed the Labour Party, dramatically cut back the welfare state, even flirted with a poll tax. In the circles I ran in, Reagan was mocked as a childish dolt. Thatcher was despised.” StatesPartyCuttingBrokenTaxesUnionsCirclesRanWelfareLabourPollsCrushedDespisedWelfare StateMinersLabour Party Author:Jon Weisman
“I was very conscious of race as I was writing. I was lucky to have spent real time in Portuguese Africa, but I am white and my main characters are white, outsiders at sea in the "Dark Continent."” WritingRealCharacterDarkWhiteRaceSeaLuckyConsciousContinentsOutsidersPortugueseMain Characters Author:Jon Weisman
“Liberals in the US don't have great passions about Margaret Thatcher. Conservatives do. For all the worship that Ronald Reagan elicits in conservative circles in the US, I would venture that Thatcher did far more to reshape British society than Reagan did here. When I moved to Britain, the utilities were state-run. By the time I left, most of that was privatized. Thatcher had broken the miners' union, all but crushed the Labour Party, cut back the welfare state, even flirted with a poll tax. In the circles I ran in, Reagan was mocked as a childish dolt. Thatcher was despised.” PassionPartyCuttingBrokenTaxesWorshipMovedConservativeRanWelfareLabourUtilityCrushedGreat Passion Author:Jon Weisman
