Stillness is a harder concept for me than ecstasy, but I can imagine it best when I am fully present and paying strict attention to a place I am moving through.

Give me a labyrinth to walk and I can usually free my mind.

I always tell my students, about the biggest baddest things in life you must try to write small and light, save the big writing for the unexpected tiny thing that always makes or breaks a story.

I always think, when I'm in motion, writing seems like the most natural thing.

I'm not very interested in telling the facts. I have a lot of investment in telling the truth.

I've always traveled. I'm a professor in a limited way. I teach one class two quarters out of four, so I get traveling done.

Being in the presence of the "other" seems to show me who I am in a way that is really important to me. I feel radically more comfortable in Laos, say, than I do in Pennsylvania.