Interview with Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray is a writer.

On Writing

Max Raskin: How do you primarily think of yourself? You write, you give lectures, you’re a reporter.

Douglas Murray: Always as a writer, because it's what I've been all my adult life.

MR: I want to ask a little bit about your writing habits. How do you sit down to write something — do you take notes in notebooks? On your phone?

DM: It varies, and it’s different from columns to books. With a book like this one, I work out of notebooks and use recording devices to collect evidence and testimony. I then write that up and start to work that into the themes and the narrative of the book. I’m also furiously making notes all along the way.

And then something happens in the book writing process: Things settle to the bottom. Certain stories or events will stand out, certain testimonies become emblematic of a wider story.

MR: So you handwrite things that stand out?

DM: Yes, and particular phrases or observations and things like that.

MR: What about in books that you read? Do you write marginalia?