If you've got a plot the size of a car or a tiny yard in Italy, you're going to be growing tomatoes and basil and celery and carrots, and everybody is still connected to the land.

A Chinese poet many centuries ago noticed that to re-create something in words is like being alive twice.

The world cracks open for those willing to take a risk.

It’s daunting to find the language so foreign, so distant, but also so thrilling. One is absolved of responsibility when the language is incomprehensible.

Italy's siren call lures us more and more.

Anytime the perfume of orange and lemon groves wafts in the window; the human body has to feel suffused with a languorous well-being.

Although I am a person who expected to be rooted in one spot forever, as it has turned out I love having the memories of living in many places.