Max Joseph Quotes

Well, one thing I'm really interested in, when I'm writing, is being accurate.

Nonfiction means that our stories are as true and accurate as possible. Readers expect - demand - diligence.

I think the most important thing journalism taught me is to mine for details. The details are key. You can't try to be funny or strange or poignant; you have to let the details be funny or strange or poignant for you.

I don't believe in writing anything that I don't know about or haven't researched about personally. I like to transport the reader to places, and in order to do that I have to do the research.

Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong.

I cite my vouchers to every passage and I have done my utmost, first to find out the truth, and then to relate it in the clearest order. I have laboured after accuracy; and yet I dare not say that I am without mistake; nor do I desire the reader to conceal any he may possibly find.

But with nonfiction, the task is very straightforward: Do the research, tell the story.

I believe in research you cannot do enough research; believability comes out of what's real.

I think, when you are writing non-fiction, you feel there's an obligation to get it absolutely right, so all your factual details have to be, have, you know, to go through a long list of them and tick them. I'm not saying that's not important in fiction, but I think you have a bit more leeway; you can suit yourself.

When you're writing non-fiction, you go as far as you can go, and then ethically you have to stop. You can't go. You can't suppose. You can't imagine. And I think there's something in human nature that wants to finish the story.

If there's anything about someone's life that's important enough to make a movie about it, I have to take responsibility to get all of it right. It's a huge responsibility.

If you ever want to get the facts straight about me or the Batman, please write to the original source, myself, for the truth, instead of second guessing.

Nonfiction requires enormous discipline. You construct the terms of your story, and then you stick to them.

I'm a great believer in research. I have to know about a place before I write a story that is set in that place.

Tricks you need to transform something which appears fantastic, unbelievable into something plausible, credible, those I learned from journalism. The key is to tell it straight. It is done by reporters and by country folk.

I don't edit information, I follow it.

I do crazy amounts of research. I want this stuff to 'work,' so to speak. I need to be, at least to me, believable - because if I feel - if I cannot invest some element of verisimilitude, the reader is absolutely not going to buy in.

The thing I always tell my writing students - I'm not a full-time instructor, by any means, but periodically I've taught writing students - what I always tell them is that the most important thing in narrative nonfiction is that you not only have to have all the research; you have to have about 100% more than you need.

The expectations for a nonfiction writer are awful high.

I promised myself that I would write as well as I can, tell the truth, not to tell everything I know, but to make sure that everything I tell is true, as I understand it. And to use the eloquence which my language affords me.

I am no historian but have tried to stick tight to the facts.

When you are working on a real story it is your responsibility to get everything right and stay as true and authentic as possible.

If your story is being told by someone who doesn't really know it, it's not going to come out accurate. A lot of it has to do with context. Whoever's behind the camera or pen or whatever.

When I do jokes that maybe are seen as social commentary, I research them to the nth degree. I probably do more research than I do actual joke writing. I want to make sure what I'm saying is correct.

I think diverse stories are just stories. I don't think 'diverse' is an add-on package. Things that are not diverse are weird because that's not accurate.