For [Jane Austen and the readers of Pride and Prejudice], as for Mr. Darcy, [Elizabeth Bennett's] solitary walks express the independence that literally takes the heroine out of the social sphere of the houses and their inhabitants, into a larger, lonelier world where she is free to think: walking articulates both physical and mental freedom.

I roam around a lot in my territory, but what I learn at one end inflects and opens up my understanding at the other.

I don't think my work has to be loved by everyone, and it's loved by enough people that I'm grateful and able to keep going.

I see disaster everywhere; I also […] see generosity and resistance everywhere.

We are often in two places at once. In fact we are usually in at least two places and occasionally the contrast is evident....Here, most often, is nothing more than the best perspective to contemplate there.

Walking articulates both physical and mental freedom.

Never to get lost is not to live, not to know how to get lost brings you to destruction.