As touchy as cabaret performers and as stubborn as factory machinists....

— Tom Rachman

Basically, financial reporting is this sinking hole at the center of journalism. You start by swimming around it until finally, reluctantly, you can't fight the pull anymore, and you get sucked down the drain into the biz pages.

— Tom Rachman

But my point, you see is that death is misunderstood. The loss of one's life is not the greatest loss. It is no loss at all. To others, perhaps, but not to oneself.

— Tom Rachman

Did she answer my email yet?' That's the new obesity.

— Tom Rachman

Don’t you find it striking? The personality is constantly dying, and it feels like continuity. Meanwhile, we panic about death, which we cannot ever experience. Yet it is this illogical fear that motivates our lives. We gore each other and mutilate ourselves for victory and fame, as if these might swindle mortality and extend us somehow. Then, as death bears down, we agonize over how little we have achieved.

— Tom Rachman

He cannot deny a certain relief in being able to sift through academic tomes, fulfilling his journalistic duty without having to barge past security guards at the Arab League or grab man-on-the-street from women at the market. This library work is easily his favorite part of reporting so far.

— Tom Rachman

I have to wonder if you're not being slightly naive here. I mean, are you saying that you want nothing for people? You have no motives? Everybody has motives. Name the person, the circumstances, I'll name the motive. Even saints have motives -- to feel like saints, probably. ... But still, the point of any relationship is obtaining something from another person.

— Tom Rachman

Literally: This word should be deleted. All too often, actions described as “literally” did not happen at all. As in, “He literally jumped out of his skin.” No, he did not. Though if he literally had, I’d suggest raising the element and proposing the piece for page one. Inserting “literally” willy-nilly reinforces the notion that breathless nitwits lurk within this newsroom. Eliminate on sight—the usage, not the nitwits. The nitwits are to be captured

— Tom Rachman

...looking back, has this journalism experience been a nightmare for you?'' Not entirely.'' Did you enjoy any of it?'' I liked going to the library,' he says. 'I think I prefer books to people -- primary sources scare me.

— Tom Rachman

Maybe we're all ongoing stories, defined at various stages of life, or whenever people oblige us to declare ourselves. Fiction is marvelous for studying this, allowing the writer and reader to leap decades in a sentence. No other art lets you bend time as much.

— Tom Rachman