Episode · How I Write · 2026-03-04
David Perell & Steven Pressfield: books mentioned on How I Write (Mar 2026)
How to Write Remarkably Well — Steven Pressfield
Steven Pressfield discussed The emperor's new clothes by Hans Christian Andersen and others, Shane by Jack Schaefer, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, The French Connection by Robin Moore, Blade runner 2049, Braveheart by Randall Wallace, Casablanca by Richard J. Anobile, The Big Lebowski by J.M. Tyree and others, Chinatown by Robert Towne, MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE by Herman Melville, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally. David Perell discussed The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, Bullies and Mean Girls in Popular Culture by Patrice A. Oppliger, and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The emperor's new clothes
The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen is a classic fairy tale about vanity, societal conformity, and the courage required to speak uncomfortable truths.
Discussed“So, it's again when I'm kind of writing a story, if I've if I have a child or an animal in there that just comes sort of naturally, like I feel like I need some kind of an animal in here. When I'm when I switch over to my left brain and ask myself, what's going on here? A lot”
Where to get it
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Shane
Discussed“Oh, great Western starring Alan Lad as a gunslinger that comes into this threatened environment of um sodbusters in a in a kind of range war against cattlemen. And Brandon Dewilda, who at that time was like 6 years old, he was the innocent. He was the child in that thing.”
Where to get it
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The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr.
Discussed“Yes. Remember the Matt Dam killing in the boat? Ah, I don't I don't know if that's the same, but that's sort of what happens where you have Matt Damon who's jealous and then there's the killing. And basically, my sense is that in the first, let's say onethird of the movie, there's been a story that's been set up”
Where to get it
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey's classic novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" portrays institutional life and psychiatric practices through the experiences of patients in a mental asylum.
Discussed“Well, Jack Nicholson is this guy who is a kind of a livewire high energy guy and he gets sentenced to um an insane asylum, right, where all the people are sort of really down and he kind of energizes everybody, you know, but he runs the foul of nurse Ratchet, uh the bad nurse that runs him and the”
Where to get it
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The French Connection
Discussed“In Silence of the Lambs, um Clarice Stalling gets stripped of her badge and her gun to pursue this case. In the French connection, Gene Hackman and Roy Shider have to turn in their badge and their gun.”
Where to get it
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Blade runner 2049
Discussed“Even in LadeRunner 2049, I know I'm citing movies or whatever, the Ryan Gosling character K is told, "Turn in your badge and your gun, you're off the case."”
Where to get it
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Braveheart
Braveheart by Randall Wallace is a historical drama and companion book following the life of Scottish hero William Wallace and his fight for freedom.
Discussed“Ah, that's a that's a principle uh that my friend Randy Wallace who wrote Braveheart taught me and um it was that the first act kind of introduces the hero but in the second act the villain has to come forward.”
Where to get it
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Casablanca
Casablanca by Richard J.
Discussed“like one of the classic cases of uh a hero giving up something is in Casablanca where the Bogart character at the end of the movie gives up the love of his life, Ingred Bergman, right? He puts her on the plane to Lisbon with her husband...”
Where to get it
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The Big Lebowski
Discussed“The big Labowski. Yeah, you're familiar with that one, right? The dude Jeff Bridges. If you think about the Big Labowski, the genre of the Big Labowski is a detective story. Okay. Right. The dude is kind of given an assignment at the start by a rich guy.”
Where to get it
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Chinatown
Discussed“I say for instance in Chinatown when um Jack Nicholson the detective first meets Fay Dunaway she's the one who knows all the answers right what he's trying to find you know he's trying to get dig up what's behind the murders of this and that and the other...”
Where to get it
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MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville is an epic American novel that chronicles the obsessive, self-destructive quest of Captain Ahab to hunt down the giant white whale that maimed him.
Discussed“For instance, we were talking about this earlier, David, in Moby Dick, which has no female characters at all. The sea is the female. And if you think about the sea carrying the mystery, the sea is into the depths which Moby Dick dives.”
Where to get it
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L.
Discussed“Ah you've done your your research. Great. um in sort of the classic hero's journey model of a story the uh if we think of let's say um Wizard of Oz the story starts out act one is the ordinary world so it's Dorothy in Kansas da da da with her dog Toto...”
Where to get it
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Bullies and Mean Girls in Popular Culture
Bullies and Mean Girls in Popular Culture by Patrice A.
Discussed“And so, in that the core idea that I was thinking about was identity, and it seems like a something that you see in a lot of stories is there's a moment where we see the true identity strangely enough I was to give Mean Girls ridiculous example I admit but I was thinking of these stories like Mean Girls”
Where to get it
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The Hobbit
The Hobbit by J.R.R.
Discussed“Listen to this from Tol. Okay. It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterwards were nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in weight.”
Where to get it
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a classic American novel chronicling a journey down the Mississippi River and exploring deep moral questions through the relationship between Huck and the runaway slave Jim.
Discussed“You look I at least I do. Yeah. Or I'll say, "Where's the story going to?" You know, like if it's um if it's Huckleberry Finn, it's got to be the moment where he's supposed to write the letter that turns Jim the slave in and he says, "Fuck this. I'm not going to do it." Right?”
Where to get it
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Schindler's List
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally is a powerful historical novel that chronicles the heroic efforts of Oskar Schindler to save over a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.
Discussed“If you think about um Schindler's List. Yeah. You know what could be more horrific than that? But it's a beautiful movie. Yeah. And you know that Spielberg and the cameraman and the lighting, they went to incredible pains to make up every frame, you know, work.”
Where to get it
