Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.

Writers are the custodians of memory, and that's what this chapter is about: how to leave some kind of record of your life and of the family you were born into.

All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.

One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.

Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.

Much of my writing has taken the form of a pilgrimage: to sacred places that represent the best of America, to musicians and other artists who represent the best of their art.

Writing is linear and sequential; Sentence B must follow Sentence A, and Sentence C must follow Sentence B, and eventually you get to Sentence Z. The hard part of writing isn't the writing; it's the thinking. You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: What does the reader need to know next?