It's kind of amazing that people will travel because of a book. I admire that.

I got the idea that to write books would be the best way to spend a life. I never thought of anything else that seemed like half as much fun, although in my next life I would like to be an architect, too, so I can have an easier time restoring houses.

It's kind of amazing that people will travel because of a book. I admire that.

Life offers you a thousand chances... all you have to do is take one.

I had the urge to examine my life in another culture and move beyond what I knew.

I would like The Discovery of Poetry to be a field guide to the natural pleasures of language - a happiness we were born to have.

The undulent landscape looks serene in every direction. Honey-colored farmhouses, gently placed in hollows, rise like thick loaves of bread set out to cool.