A common defense among obituary-fanciers such as myself is that the obit is not about death at all. It is about life. This is true since an article about the condition of deadness would make for turgid reading at best. Tom Rachman articlecommoncondition share on social
I don't like most contemporary art. But I think if you talked to any person who's heavily involved in contemporary art, they'd say the same thing. If you go to a biennale, you don't expect to like much of it. Tom Rachman artbiennalecontemporary share on social
Obituaries were among my favorite to write because they have elements no other news stories have - a story from start to finish with a proper conclusion. Tom Rachman conclusionelementfavorite Change image and share on social
The strength of fiction is not in reading about yourself, but in reading about other people. Tom Rachman fictionpeopleread Change image and share on social
The training of a journalist, of working with words for thousands of hours, is extraordinarily useful for a fiction writer. Tom Rachman extraordinarilyfictionhour Change image and share on social
There are journalists who are drawn to the most extroverted, aggressive jobs because they get an ego high from it. It can be shocking to encounter them and even worse to work with them. Tom Rachman aggressivebadlydraw Change image and share on social
During my past career as a journalist, I relished writing obits and equally dreaded phoning relatives for the necessary facts. But to my surprise and great relief, they often wanted to talk - they wanted their recently deceased loved ones recorded in print. Tom Rachman careerdeceasedread share on social
My parents used to rent old movies - my whole childhood is in black and white - and it was my dream to make films. Tom Rachman blackchildhooddream Change image and share on social
My own career started in New York at the 'Associated Press', a fast-paced news agency where we rarely had time for deep reporting. Tom Rachman agencycareerdeep Change image and share on social
That's a paradox I've noticed, too: The news business held little romance for me, yet writing about it somehow stirred my affections. Tom Rachman affectionbusinesshave Change image and share on social
