My greatest inspiration is memory.

I know there are writers who feel unhappy with domesticity and who even manufacture domestic turmoil in order to have something to write about. With me, though, the happier I feel, the better I write.

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.

Maine is a joy in the summer. But the soul of Maine is more apparent in the winter.

There are two worlds: the world of the tourist and the world of everyone else. Often they're side by side. But the tourist doesn't actually see how people live.

...a society without jaywalkers might indicate a society without artists.

The greatest justification for travel is not self-improvement but rather performing a vanishing act, disappearing without a trace.