No one is born a writer; literacy is a peculiar mode of being, but I was all about stories from a very early age, before reading.

The poor have often been subversive just because they don't always believe their own depiction as brutes and loafers and leeches, and new economy is making lots more poor or recognize their fellowship with the insecurity of the poor, the portion of the population for whom the system does not work.

Walking . . . is how the body measures itself against the earth.

Worry is a way to pretend that you have knowledge or control over what you don't--and it surprises me, even in myself, how much we prefer ugly scenarios to the pure unknown.

A city always contains more than any inhabitant can know, and a great city always makes the unknown and the possible spurs to the imagination.

The great majority of people are calm, resourceful, altruistic or even beyond altruistic, as they risk themselves for others. We improvise the conditions of survival beautifully.

It's hardly surprising that the corporate aliens lie when it comes to the relationship between doing something about climate change and the economy.