“Write a Sentence as Clean as a Bone” And Other Advice from James Baldwin

“A few tips on how to be a better writer:

– write about what fascinates you

– make one point per sentence

– use stories to make your point

– cut extra words like “really” and “very”

– read the whole thing out loud

– post publicly (you’ll try harder when you know others will read it)

And finally, be more thoughtful about what you consume. The quality of id... See more

Writer and activist James Baldwin on the power of reading:

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive.... See more

You should write because when you know that you’re going to write, it changes the way you live. I’m thinking about a book I read called Field Notes on Science & Nature , a collection of essays by scientists about their notes. It’s hard to imagine a more tedious concept — a book of essays about notes ? — but in execution it was wonderful. What i... See more

Writer and activist James Baldwin on what love looks like:

"The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other's light."