Gene Weingarten
Gene Weingarten
Gene Weingartenis a Washington Post columnist and American two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist known for both his serious and humorous work. Weingarten's column, Below the Beltway, is published weekly in the Washington Post Magazine and syndicated nationally by The Washington Post Writers Group, which also syndicates Barney & Clyde, a comic strip he co-authors...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth2 October 1951
CountryUnited States of America
call capital persuasive seat work
Because I live and work in Washington, D.C., I have a ringside seat at the world capital of The Persuasive Arts, or, as I like to call it, The Opinions Racket.
writing thinking aspiring-writers
The one thing an aspiring writer must understand is that it's hard. If you think it's not hard, you're not doing it right.
writing vocabulary dancing
Well, let’s start with the maxim that the best writing is understated, meaning it’s not full of flourishes and semaphores and tap dancing and vocabulary dumps that get in the way of the story you are telling. Once you accept that, what are you left with? You are left with the story you are telling. The story you are telling is only as good as the information in it: things you elicit, or things you observe, that make a narrative come alive; things that support your point not just through assertion, but through example; quotes that don’t just convey information, but also personality.
pain spring disease
It is a cliche, and it is also true, that humor springs from existential pain - from a need to blunt the awareness that life is essentially a fatal disease of unpredictable symptoms and unknown duration.
writing want rich
Mostly, you become a writer not because you want to get rich or famous, but because you have to write; because there is something inside that must come out.
sobriety hart found
Johnny Hart became much less funny after he found sobriety, and religion, around the same time.
order sides maggots
It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots,
splendid
Shakespeare was such a splendid vulgarian.
talking phones giving
I once found myself driving, smoking a cigar, taking notes, and talking on the phone at the same time. I only became completely aware of this when I had to shift, and realized something had to give.
mistake believe college
I do not believe in public shaming. I do believe that young adults go to college to learn things, and that this process will almost inevitably result in their making mistakes and misjudgments and otherwise acting badly.
use weight comic
Every single fat comic uses his weight as a punchline. There is something sad about that.
theory humans knows
That is my theory to explain the I don't knows. It's human.
atheist sorry hate
I don't think there is prejudice against atheists the same way there is prejudice against fat people. I don't think people hate or contemn atheists; I think people feel sorry for atheists.
best felt good great writer
I felt like I was never going to be a great writer. I felt like I was going to be a good writer at best. I wanted to be great at something.