How strange to read of a place in a book, and then stand on it, listen to the birds sing, and spit on the cobbles if you want.

You can’t replace people you love with other people…But you can trust that you’re not going to run out of people to love.

The truth needs so little rehearsal.

it takes your sleeping self years to catch up to where you really are. ... when you go on a trip, in your dreams you will still be home. Then after you've come home you'll dream of where you were. It's a kind of jet lag of the consciousness.

Nonfiction requires enormous discipline. You construct the terms of your story, and then you stick to them.

If you ask me, when something extraordinary shows up in your life in the middle of the night, you give it a name and make it the best home you can.

Food culture in the United States has long been cast as the property of a privileged class. It is nothing of the kind. Culture is the property of a species.