Why Writing?

What made you want to write?

We asked writers to talk about why they became a writer, whether it was something in their childhood or they came to it later in life. You may be surprised, as we were, by the differences in the answers below.

“So for me that was that feeling of POWER, of being able to tell my OWN story as opposed to just reading it in textbooks.”

Joseph O’Neill

“I feel like one of the GIFTS of coming to American has been to enable me to write in the tradition of the IMMIGRANT, which is a very important tradition in American literature.”

“Writing a book is like GIVING BIRTH to a child. You just have to send this child into the world and the child will have its own life.”

"For me writing was an act of SURVIVAL because it got me through all those difficult years of trying to figure out where I BELONGED."

"I became a WRITER because I was a READER."

"When I became a writer was not really in response to the types of books that I read as a child, it was more as a response to CLAIMING my IDENTITY."

"I was never really fit for the job market. I got BORED. And I was also INCOMPETENT. And so the writing of a screenplay that would sell became really an act of DESPERATION."

"When I became a MUSICIAN I found another OUTLET for WORDS, another medium that felt, I think, more COMFORTABLE."

Viet Thanh Nguyen

"Not only did writing these stories bring me PLEASURE, but I also believed then and still believe deeply now that stories are also FUNDAMENTAL to how we see ourselves as people, as citizens, as Americans."

"And so I do feel as a comic book creator I get to work with both WORDS and IMAGES in ways that more completely express the IDEA, more completely communicates the concept or the story."

"So I think it was ALWAYS there, but there was a huge long detour that had to do with SECURITY, wanting to not fall back down in society into a place of poverty."

Luis Alberto Urrea

"I felt INCAPABLE of doing anything else."

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What is "American"?

Exhibit Extensions