If you get down about the state of American culture, just remember there are still more public libraries in this country than there are McDonalds.
David McculloughRead
My shorthand answer is that I try to write the kind of book that I would like to read. If I can make it clear and interesting and compelling to me, then I hope maybe it will be for the reader.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Write books that are engaging and enjoyable, reflecting your own interests and clarity to appeal to readers.
David McCullough emphasizes the importance of creating writing that resonates with both the author and the intended audience. By crafting a book that the writer finds clear, interesting, and compelling, they increase the likelihood that the same qualities will attract and engage readers, thus fostering a deeper connection between author and audience.
Themes
WritingBooksClarityInterestReader
In practice
Example use cases
A writer might quote this during a workshop on the creative writing process.
More from David Mccullough
All quotes →There is only one person who can measure your success. That person is you.
David McculloughRead
I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities.
David McculloughRead
Napoleon could never imagine that some people loved their country as much as he loved his own.
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When the founders wrote about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they didn't mean longer vacations and more comfortable hammocks. They meant the pursuit of learning. The pursuit of improvement and excellence. In hard work is happiness.
David McculloughRead
Any nation that expects to be ignorant and free," Jefferson said, "expects what never was and never will be." And if the gap between the educated and the uneducated in America continues to grow as it is in our time, as fast as or faster than the gap between the rich and the poor, the gap between the educated and the uneducated is going to be of greater consequence and the more serious threat to our way of life. We must not, by any means, misunderstand that.
David McculloughRead
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Treat your audience like poets and geniuses and they’ll have the chance to become them.
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I feel like, in a lot of ways, 'Hidden Figures' is the book that I wrote and have been waiting to read since I learned to read.
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