I come from Des Moines. Someone had to.

99.99 percent of all species that have ever lived are no longer with us.

I can't imagine there has ever been a more gratifying time or place to be alive than America in the 1950s. No country had ever known such prosperity.

If you believe in god, it's much more fantastic to believe that he created this universe billions of years ago and set in motion this long train of activities that eventually resulted in us. I think that's so much more satisfying, more thrilling, than the idea that it was all done in seven days.

Because time moves more slowly in Kid World ... it goes on for decades ... It is adult life that is over in a twinkling.

What is it about maps? I could look at them all day, earnestly studying the names of towns and villages I have never heard of and will never visit.

The first book I did - the first successful book - was a kind of a travel book, and publishers in Britain encouraged me to do more.