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" 'The Means' is about power. I have access to political insiders who helped me write a portrait of the real day-to-day in politics, which turned out to be crazier than Wall Street. "
Douglas Brunt
Portrait
Power
Politics
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" The important thing is to write when your brain is at its best. Work edits or do outside reading with the rest of the day. "
Douglas Brunt
Rest
Best
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" I've been pretty damn happy since 2001. More apparent danger than real danger for me, and even the apparent danger hasn't kept me from feeling warm, safe and loved. I've found love and a partner to raise three children that I'm glad to have brought into this beautiful world. "
Douglas Brunt
Happy
Children
Beautiful
" Dad met Mom in 1983 during the lead-up to the 1984 games. She was an Olympic downhill skier. In those days, the winter and summer games were held in different cities but in the same year, so there was more intermingling of winter and summer athletes at social functions. "
Douglas Brunt
Year
Summer
Winter
" New York is big, fast, energetic, and has the most and best of everything. While it can push the senses, it's the most convenient place to live. It's much easier for a ninety year old to live in New York City than in the suburbs. NYC is the best mass assisted-living facility on the planet. "
Douglas Brunt
City
Best
Live
" From a distance, the American political system is a remarkable success. We have accomplished the peaceful transfer of power for more than two hundred years, and that's unmatched by any civilization in human history. Up close, our political system still has all the ugliness and bad actors that you might suspect. "
Douglas Brunt
Power
Success
You
" The last book I read before I wrote my first book - 'Ghosts of Manhattan' - was 'The Gold Coast' by DeMille. I loved it, and it gave me a lot of energy to start into my own. "
Douglas Brunt
Start
Me
Loved
" I've seen terrorism close up, but I don't live in a state of terror at all. I'm comfortable going to the Manhattan Thanksgiving Day Parade, the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center, Times Square on New Years Eve. For perspective, the world today is a safer place than it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Airlift, World War II. "
Douglas Brunt
Tree
Today
Day
" In my first book, 'Ghosts Of Manhattan,' the setting was Wall Street, and I explored the predictable nature of a bond trader inside the compensation scheme at Bear Stearns and the government regulations of Wall Street. That was about money. "
Douglas Brunt
Money
Bond
Book
" When the kids are down, I have a drink and watch 'The Kelly File.' "
Douglas Brunt
Down
Watch
Kids
" Adverbs lead to overwriting. Try taking them out and reading your prose again to see how it sounds. Simple and less words are more powerful. "
Douglas Brunt
Words
Try
Simple
" I've thought about bringing my children to retrace my own steps of the morning of September 11, 2001, but they're too young for that. Maybe when they're twenty. Maybe by then, even though it's been only a short subway ride away for years now, I'll have the nerve to see the 9-11 memorial for the first time. "
Douglas Brunt
Ride
Short
Children
" I prefer a change of surroundings anyway, and I like to be around some energy and white noise, so I usually go to a Barnes & Noble cafe or to the library on 5th and 42nd. In the afternoons, I do research, reading, editing, and play with the kids. "
Douglas Brunt
Play
Energy
Reading
" Your spouse, a sibling, a friend need to read your drafts. They have to be people unafraid to tell you what sucks. For early feedback, that's more important than professional editorial skill. Most people know what sucks. "
Douglas Brunt
Professional
People
Friend
" I like to write in the mornings, so I try to protect 9 A.M. - 12 P.M. for me. I can drop our older two kids at school then write for a few hours. "
Douglas Brunt
I Can
Two
Protect
" A tennis racket lurks in my earliest memories like a sick relative who had come to live with us. When I look at my baby pictures, there it is, resting in my crib in the place of a rattle or chew toy. "
Douglas Brunt
Live
Look
Memories
" Washington isn't utterly dysfunctional. "
Douglas Brunt
Utterly
Dysfunctional
Washington
" New York can get on top of you if you don't have much money, but if you have money, it's kind of a playground. "
Douglas Brunt
Money
New
New York
" At six years old, our son had friends who played soccer from 4 P.M. to 7 P.M., Monday through Friday. A six-year-old practicing as much as a Division I athlete. "
Douglas Brunt
Monday
Son
Soccer
" Style matters, but the real force of writing is ideas, not style. "
Douglas Brunt
Style
Real
Matters
" I did interviews with tennis greats, like James Blake and John Isner. I also interviewed tennis pros who aren't well - known but who made all the same sacrifices but had just a little spark of a professional career and are now still orbiting the sport, either as a teaching pro or a coach. "
Douglas Brunt
Career
Professional
Spark
" Dad was a retired hedge fund manager who made enough millions to retire and focus on my game. Before that, he was on the 1984 U.S. Olympic swimming team. No medals. He was accustomed to winning at everything, but no medals in 1984. "
Douglas Brunt
Focus
Winning
Team
" I'm really troubled by the prevalence of single-sport specializations. I want my kids to do as many things for as long as they can. Specialization is a natural thing that should come later - it shouldn't come for 8-year-olds. "
Douglas Brunt
Want
Natural
Things
" A comparison of the average professional baseball salary to the national average salary over the last one hundred years shows that for the first fifty years, 1920-1970, baseball players held a steady multiple of about 3.4 times the national average income. "
Douglas Brunt
Baseball
Professional
Salary
" Don't write more than 3 hours at a time. I write three hours in the morning, 9 A.M. - 12 P.M. Other people are best late at night. "
Douglas Brunt
People
Best
Late
" The job for cable is to give the news and then also give the 'so what.' "
Douglas Brunt
Give
Job
Then
" On Wall Street, every story becomes known so quickly. They are all so connected that everything disseminates there faster than anywhere. "
Douglas Brunt
Everything
Story
Street
" It's common knowledge that professional athletes earn extraordinary incomes. What is less known or understood is how the advent of these riches has seeped into the conscious and unconscious ways in which our society now parents children. "
Douglas Brunt
Children
Society
Knowledge
" D.C. is a small town with some big-town features. "
Douglas Brunt
Small
Features
Town
" If you look at top players - Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi - so many had a parent who was domineering to the point where you really had to question his sanity. It was nuts. "
Douglas Brunt
Parent
You
Top
" With tennis, if you're very good at a young age, you don't even go to your prom. You're down at some tennis academy in Florida where you're on the court 8 hours a day. It's brutal. "
Douglas Brunt
Good
You
Young