I love writing traditional magazine pieces, and especially their breadth of reporting and the deliberateness of the writing.

Even after I'd published three books and had been writing full-time for twenty years, my father continued to urge me to go to law school.

An ordinary life examined closely reveals itself to be exquisite and complicated and exceptional, somehow managing to be both heroic and plain.

I love convincing a reader that an unusual or seemingly ordinary subject is worth his or her time - it's part of the fun for me as a writer.

You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it.

College athletics are so entrenched and enjoyed by so many people that they will never be discontinued or substantially changed. I know that. I just pity the people caught in that tender trap. And most of all, I pity those kids.

Why, I wonder, should the popularity of a news story matter to me? Does it mean it's a good story or just a seductive one?