We have had so many great writers grace our stage here at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference (like Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes, pictured right). We dug through some of the best talks over the last 30 years, in celebration of our 30th Anniversary, and pulled out these nostalgic nuggets below to share with you. We hope you enjoy!

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“I have been imprisoned and I have been informed through literature. We cross borders and we become united with the selves that we did not know we had.”

MIN JIN LEE
2019 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference

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“I just want to warn you, if you’re nasty to anyone in your family, be careful. You don’t know if they’re going to grow up and be a writer.”

ALEXANDRA FULLER
2012/15 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference

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“I don’t have any work habits. I’m a great model for tomorrow’s leaders. I can write anywhere. I don’t have a favorite chair, a costume, or a candle, or some fetish object that is required. It’s like being a fireman, sort of, I mean it’s a lot of playing pointless games of checkers, and then suddenly a poem arrives and it’s game on.”

BILLY COLLINS
2017 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference

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“Phony heroism irritates me because I believe in cowardice. If we all ran, there wouldn’t be any wars. Just run.”

FRANK MCCOURT
2004 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference

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“Nothing makes me happier than to see a fine sentence. Truly.”

MIN JIN LEE
2019 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference

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“It also takes a tremendous amount of courage to honor freedom of speech. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to sit bravely and hear one another… the gift of freedom of speech does not come without enormous responsibility and that responsibility is the courage to attempt to really hear one another.”

ALEXANDRA FULLER
2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference

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“The purpose of the young is to push us off the face of the earth. And we keep holding on and we’re getting older and older and they’re getting more and more desperate at our longevity.”

FRANK MCCOURT
2004 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference

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“Wherever  you  go  if  you’re  from  Florida  people just  give  you  that  look,  you  know: Why  do  you live  there? And  it’s  really  not  fair and  I’ll  tell  you  why. Florida has  21  million  residents. Is  it  fair  to  judge  21  million  people  because  of  the  actions  of  19  million  people? No,  it’s  not  fair. Two  million  of  us  should  be  let  off  the  hook.”

DAVE BARRY
Frank McCourt Memorial Lecture
2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference

Photo credit: Barbi Reed