I do not think you can find a reason for everything you make.

My grandfather, on my father's side, helped to draft one of the first constitutions of China. He was a fairly well-known scholar.

war is not just a victory or loss ... People die.

It's only in hindsight that you realize what indeed your childhood was really like.

I can't shout out, "Do this." I don't want to be prescriptive. I want to give you facts, and that's the way I've always operated, whether it's a historical fact or a scientific fact, and then you actually have to connect it in your brain.

I though about what death is, what a loss is. A sharp pain that lessens with time, but can never quite heal over. A scar. The idea occurred to me there on the site. Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass would heal it. As if you cut open the rock and polished it.

I loved school. I studied like crazy. I was a Class A nerd.