What writer do you admire most and why?

Answer 1

I really, really, love James Michner. He writes historical fiction and his books took years of research to write. What I admired most was the way he could get completely into a character's head so that no matter what their viewpoint was you had sympathy for them.

He tends to write about a new character from almost every generation of a family and their contemporaries. He quite often chooses characters that have completely different political and religious ideals in each section and he really explains how the circumstances in their lives led them to their beliefs and how they might of evolved over time. You've really got to put your own ideas on a back burner to do that.

It really helps remind me that no matter how strongly I think my ideas are right other people have equally powerful reasons for believing their ideas too. Something we forget too easily here in America.

Answer 2

Dorothy Parker is my personal favorite because she was witty, sarcastic, and exteremly bold when it was really not popular for a woman to be so, especailly in written form. Dorothy seemed unafraid and daring, but she was actually very troubled. Often her stories would seem funny, and a little sad - when you looked deeper, you could see that like most writers, she was writing about her life. She hid her saddness in words.

Worth looking into.

Answer 3

Publius Cornelius Tacitus. Concise, perfectly balanced prose is the reason. One becomes a better writer by reading him.

Answer 4

Piers Anthony
his use of puns, always bring a smile to my face.
such a creative mind
always a good read

Answer 5

I admire Salman Rushdie. He's incredibly ballsy, exiled and his life threatened because of his writings.

Answer 6

Hard to say - possibly Emily Dickenson. Or maybe Shakespeare, whoever he was. :-)

Answer 7

I like Hemingway for his brevity.