Quotes from David Grann

I don't cry too often reading books, but I did reading Francisco Goldman's autobiographical novel, 'Say Her Name.'

I wish a book could reach as many people as film, but we have to be realistic about it.

I was a schoolteacher; I taught seventh and eighth grade, and I tried to write fiction on the side.

The romantic notion of the clubhouse as a traveling fraternity of working-class heroes - the boys of summer - is perhaps the most potent in all of baseball.

I don't hunt, I don't camp, and I get lost on my subway to work here in Times Square!

To be honest, I used to always procrastinate when I write. I mean, I love writing, but I hate it.

Heroes have always served as a reflection of their times, a template of who we are and what we want to be.

There are certain stories that remind you of the moral purpose that originally drew you to become a reporter.

I covered Congress, and everyone always wanted me to be a political reporter.

I was not very good at newspaper reporting. I'm just not quick enough, and I always tend to tell things as stories.

Baseball, of course, has long been played under the burden of metaphor. More so than basketball or football, it is supposed to represent something larger than itself.

I guess if I had to pick one interest that is unique, it would be giant squids - I'm disturbingly fascinated by them and even wrote a story about the hunt for them.

The Osage have this lovely phrase: 'Travelers in the Mist.' It was the term for part of an Osage clan that would take the lead whenever the tribe was venturing into unfamiliar realms. And, in a way, we are all travelers in the mist. The challenge is that, as writers, we sometimes want to ignore this murkiness, or we want to write around it.

Base stealers are often considered their own breed: reckless, egocentric, even a touch mad.

When I work on stories, I tend to lose sight of everything else. I forget to pay bills or to shave. I don't change my clothes as often as I should.

I don't want to just traffic in sensationalism or in mere blood.

The political hero is not like the sports champion or matinee idol or daring inventor; like the war hero, he is born only of tragedy.

Most of Gingrich's moderate positions are rooted in a realpolitik that transcends ideology.

Memory is a code to who we are, a collection of not just dates and facts but also of epic emotional struggles, epiphanies, transformations.

One of the nice things about 'The New Yorker' is they let you write stories that sometimes end up almost half a book.

It took me a long time to be able to write for the 'New Yorker,' and for me, that has been the best job. I live a very conventional life, but reporting for the magazine has allowed me to do things I would never otherwise do, such as investigating a criminal conspiracy in Guatemala or trekking through the Amazon looking for a lost city.

After a traumatic event, people tend to store a series of memories and arrange them into a meaningful narrative. They remember exactly where they were and to whom they were talking.

I really just choose stories that are compelling, have interesting trends and characters, and hopefully say something larger about society.

I'm a very slow reader.