Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency.

But somethings in life are more important than being happy. Like being free to think for yourself.

I'm intrigued by fanatics - people who are seduced by the promise, or the illusion, of the absolute.

Short form media is reductionist by nature.

Everest has always been a magnet for kooks, publicity seekers, hopeless romantics and others with a shaky hold on reality.

It was titillating to brush up against the enigma of mortality, to steal a glimpse across its forbidden frontier. Climbing was a magnificient activity, I firmly believed, not in spite of the inherent perils, but precisely because of them.

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