The quest of writing is like that giant squid hunter who is searching for the live giant squid. You try each time you aim for perfection and then you accept, you know, some of the blemishes. And I do think the structure for this book, which was very important, organically works for telling the story and the themes that the story has.
David Grann is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His new book is The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder.
“I became very haunted by the stories that [nations] don't tell. Nations and empires preserve their powers not only by the stories they tell, but also by the stories they leave out. … Early in my career, if I came across the silences in a story, I might not have highlighted them, because I thought, Well, there's nothing to tell there. And now I try to let the silences speak.”
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