I write my books to challenge my own feelings and theories. Perhaps most surprising was what I learned about rice farming. It was really interesting to think of how different Asian and Western cultures are as a result of the kinds of agricultural practices that our ancestors used for thousands of years. The life of a Chinese peasant in the Middle Ages was so dramatically different from the life of a European peasant - night and day different.

Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness.

There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.

There is this tremendous body of knowledge in the world of academia where extraordinary numbers of incredibly thoughtful people have taken the time to examine on a really profound level the way we live our lives and who we are and where we've been. That brilliant learning sometimes gets trapped in academia and never sees the light of day.

Father: 'Anything but journalism.' I rebelled.

No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.

The goal of storytelling should be to make stories as ubiquitous as music.