What Have Been the Hardest Facts in Your Writing?

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I remember I was reporting a piece in China about a tycoon and I'd gotten this interview with her out of the most kind of strange circumstances she rejected all these interviewed requests. But later when I was writing the story it was the lead I wanted to say that she was sitting on a silk sofa at such in such a place but as I was writing it I was like I don't know if that sofa is actually silk or if it's like nylon or rayon. The data was inconclusive as far as I was concerned so I then was like okay I can't tell from this photo what this thing is I'm gonna call the hotel and speak to the engineering department and they eventually did

Evan Osnos is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His new book is Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury.

“I'm always trying to get inside a subculture. That's the thing that I think has been the most enduring, attractive element for me. Is there a world that has its own manners and vocabulary and internal rhythms and status structure? And who looks down on whom? And why? And who venerates whom? Who's a big deal in these worlds? And if I can get into that, it doesn't even really matter to me that much what the subculture is. I'm fascinated by trying to map that thing out.”

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