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William Kinsolving

Goodreads Author

Born

Brooklyn, The United States

Website

https://williamkinsolving.com

Genre

Historical Fiction, Fiction

Member Since

December 2014

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/williamkinsolving

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After graduating from Stanford, William Kinsolving began his professional life onstage—first at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, playing Richard II, then at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Returning to New York, he acted under-, off-, and on Broadway and performed or directed at Stratford (CT), Harvard, Dartmouth, Café La Mama, and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where he received the San Francisco Chronicle’s Best Actor of the Year award.
He wrote his first play backstage, earning a Ford Foundation Playwriting Grant and a production at the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival. That success led to decades of work as a screenwriter and script doctor for every major film studio in Los Angeles, London, and Rome—ultimately contri ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

How do you deal with writer’s block?

William Kinsolving I honestly don’t believe in it. That’s not to say I haven’t come up against an insurmountable wall while trying to write a story. But I didn’t stop wo…moreI honestly don’t believe in it. That’s not to say I haven’t come up against an insurmountable wall while trying to write a story. But I didn’t stop working, even though I might have sat for hours, sometimes days without writing a word, or throwing out my repetitious attempts to solve whatever problem I had. I have to believe every writer hits that wall on occasion. The trick is not to give in to the temptation to give up, use it as an excuse, hope for sympathy and go play tennis. You spend the hours, you don’t distract from allowing your brain to do the ineffable struggle to solve the problem, you sit there on your usual schedule, trying to figure out whatever you must to continue the work. It’ll come. It always has for me. (less)

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What’s the best thing about being a writer?

William Kinsolving It’s gotta be two questions: 1) What’s the best thing about being a successful, self-supporting writer; and 2) What’s the best thing about struggling …moreIt’s gotta be two questions: 1) What’s the best thing about being a successful, self-supporting writer; and 2) What’s the best thing about struggling to be a writer?
Some of the answers are the same: freedom, to create what you want, as oblivious as you want to be to what anyone might require of you, to work when you want, without hourly structures or adult supervision. Clearly the difference between the two questions is the level of comfort each suggests. I spent a long time fleeing from one shag-rug studio apartment in the flats of Los Angeles to another when getting into screenwriting, subsisting on thin, self-mashed smoothies. But then I wrote my first novel in Kim Novak’s former tower-and-glass house built out on the rocks of the Carmel Highlands eating Venetian calves liver a la veronique. Yes, I preferred the latter. (less)

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William Kinsolving’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 249 ratings · 36 reviews · 19 distinct works

	Bred to Win 4.09 avg rating — 120 ratings — published 1990 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Diplomat's Daughter 4.06 avg rating — 49 ratings — published 1993 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Born With the Century 3.55 avg rating — 47 ratings — published 1979 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mister Christian: The Further Adventures of Fletcher Christian, the Legendary Leader of the Bounty Mutiny, A Novel 4.19 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 1996 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dangerous Times it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Raven 3.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1983 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Black and White and Read All Over really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nacido con el siglo it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Die Tochter des Diplomaten 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Born with the Century 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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William Kinsolving's Blog

When a Character Steps Off the Page

In the last blog, I said I was going to try to describe the phenomenon that occurs when I’ve done a lot of the research, and one character or other slips right off the pages and I know it’s time to start writing the story. Since that went up on the website, a number of you have written anticipatory questions about it, which is great! I thank those of you who’ve taken the trouble as it helps me to

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William’s Recent Updates

William Kinsolving answered Goodreads's question: Where did you get the idea for your most recent book? One night, my wife, Susan Kinsolving the poet and novelist, came down to my office where she knew I was thrashing around looking for that good idea that makes for the excitement to write something new. She had circled a footnote in a book she’d just See Full Answer
23 minutes ago · like
William Kinsolving answered Goodreads's question: How do you get inspired to write? I wish the answer were simple. Because I write in different forms – novels, screenplays, plays, even a musical, I start out with trying to figure which form will best serve the subject I want to write about. For instance, the novel coming out now, BLA See Full Answer
23 minutes ago · like
William Kinsolving joined the groups Historical Fiction Lovers Book Club and Goodreads Reviewers' Group
Mar 10, 2026 01:54PM

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Quotes by William Kinsolving (?)

“Any human relationship either grows or withers. There's no leveling off, except stagnation or the hardening of the will into concrete. For friends, lovers, married people, a next step must be there and must be taken.”
― William Kinsolving, The Diplomat's Daughter

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