Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.

The Peace Corps is a sort of Howard Johnson's on the main drag into maturity.

I like the idea of isolation, I like the idea of solitude. You can be connected and have a phone and still be lonely.

The United States is a world unto itself. We have mountains, we have deserts, we have a river that equals the Yangtze River, that equals the Nile. We have the greatest cities in the world - among the greatest cities in the world. We have a large population. We have challenges. We have an indigenous population.

Albania in 1994 was the strangest place I've ever seen. It was like walking into the looking glass: falling apart, paranoid people, anarchy, no one farming, full of thieves. It was beyond any Third World country. They were living in their own private nightmare.

A novel captures essence that is not possible in any other form.

I'm constantly running across people who have never heard of books I think they should read.