Nick McDonell

“I was brought up to believe you should always live the most interesting life you can.”

“Someone once accused me of slumming. I don't know what that means. I play basketball. And through that, I get to see a world that is not smart-kid world.”

“I'm terrified of getting what I'm not deserving of, feeling that I've got something for nothing... at the expense of brilliant starving writers all over the world. But I have to hope these people who are helping me have integrity.”

“I'm interested in illuminating the enormous disparity between vast poverty and the tiny upper class... This vast inequity is unfair by definition, and I am interested in illuminating that and, where possible, changing that.”

“I knew I loved writing, and I was raised by people who love books.”

“I'm not good enough to write about my friends, who are all brilliant and sophisticated.”

“I played football; I was a running back, and I took a hit, and I had a hairline fracture in my leg which no one spotted, and I was playing basketball all winter and it got worse. And then I was long jumping, about 20 feet, and I landed one time and there was this big crack, and all the bones were jutting out of my leg.”

“In the beginning of college I wanted to be an English major, but then I became interested in international relations.”

“The more I have written, the less it has been about exploring myself, and the more it has been about exploring the world around me.”

“I know that I work hard for the things that I do, and I really go to the places that I report on.”

“A degree of self-awareness is extremely valuable... I hope I have that going forward.”

“I'm an inexperienced reporter, and I'm still learning.”