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.

- Nick McDonell

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

- Nick McDonell

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

- Nick McDonell

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

- Nick McDonell

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

- Nick McDonell

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

- Nick McDonell

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

- Nick McDonell

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.

- Nick McDonell

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.

- Nick McDonell

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.

- Nick McDonell

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

- Nick McDonell

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.

- Nick McDonell