"Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I'm talking to people. It doesn't always work, and one shouldn't always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation"
About this Quote
The key move is the self-check: "It doesn't always work, and one shouldn't always try it". That caveat signals craft, not mere charisma. Hitchens knew the seduction of conversationality: it can fake intimacy, paper over weak evidence, turn rhetoric into a substitute for thought. By admitting the limits, he casts his preferred style as chosen discipline rather than default looseness. The subtext is anti-pedantry without being anti-intellectual. He wants the heat of argument without the dead air of academic throat-clearing.
Context matters: Hitchens came up as a polemicist and journalist, forged in debates, magazine essays, and public quarrels where clarity is a weapon and tempo is persuasion. His "conversation" is rarely cozy. Its real intent is to recreate the feeling of being across the table from someone too well-read to bluff and too impatient to let you hide behind euphemism. The reader is invited in, then held to account.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hitchens, Christopher. (2026, January 16). Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I'm talking to people. It doesn't always work, and one shouldn't always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/yes-i-well-when-i-write-as-often-as-i-can-i-try-87709/
Chicago Style
Hitchens, Christopher. "Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I'm talking to people. It doesn't always work, and one shouldn't always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/yes-i-well-when-i-write-as-often-as-i-can-i-try-87709/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I'm talking to people. It doesn't always work, and one shouldn't always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/yes-i-well-when-i-write-as-often-as-i-can-i-try-87709/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
