I think part of the appeal of Antarctica is experiencing some sort of power, the forces of the natural world.

Some people feel like they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.

Military investigations are designed not to find anyone guilty.

I never studied writing, but I'd always been a reader and had a secret fantasy about being a writer.

I think I understand that religious faith which makes the holy brave and strong; my strength is just somewhere else--it's in myself...I do not fear what may await me, though I'm equally confident that nothing awaits.

Having stumbled upon a tolerable career, for the first time in my life I was actually living above the poverty line. My hunger to climb had been blunted, in short, by a bunch of small satisfactions that added up to something like happiness.

The endless, agonizing recycling of what might have been, soon followed by a litany of rationalizations and self-deceptions as you struggle to reconcile the void between the person you want to be and the person you fear you are.