The death of something living is the price of our own survival, and we pay it again and again. We have no choice. It is the one solemn promise every life on earth is born and bound to keep.

I never think that anything I'm writing is bluntly political in any way. I'm not going for commentary.

Growing food was the first activity that gave us enough prosperity to stay in one place, form complex social groups, tell our stories, and build our cities.

A flower is your cousin...Sometimes a person has got to take a life, like a chicken's or a hog's when you need it...But nobody is so hungry they need to kill a flower. Cherokee great-grandmother

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

Few people know so clearly what they want. Most people can't even think what to hope for when they throw a penny in a fountain.

Every betrayal contains a perfect moment, a coin stamped heads or tails with salvation on the other side.