I really like visiting schools, but what I tell students isn't anywhere near as interesting to me as what they tell me.

I think for real change to happen, it's going to have to come from the kids, the community, the teachers, the parents.

Basically, I'm a perpetual student. I start by finding a subject I really don't know very much, but that I'm curious about. I learn about it through books in a library, by doing interviews with people who know a lot about the subject, and by going out on my own and seeing for myself what's happening.

I've written about illegal immigrants in the United States; I spent a year following migrant farm workers as they were harvesting. I've written about our criminal justice system, and how it treats the victims of crime. I've been working for years now on a book about prisons in America, and I've been going into prisons and traveling around the country and seeing what's going on.

A public outcry usually masks a private obsession.

Yes, a cheeseburger and fries is probably my favourite meal. But I don't eat ground beef anymore.

Different people, in good faith, can look at the same fact and interpret it differently. But thats where an interesting conversation begins.