I suppose I do have one embarrassing passion- I want to know what it feels like to care about something passionately.

I think on a day-to-day basis, what attracts us in coexisting with another living, evolving thing, is that you have a relationship that's different than with a piece of furniture. We experience the cycle of life through these other beings.

I didn't want to talk, and I didn't think dogs could solve my problems. But they were so uncritical and un-judgmental. Sometimes when you're really blue, you don't want to talk, but you want that sense of companionship. I certainly enjoy that with my beasts.

Libraries are what is best about us as a society: open, exciting, rich, informative, free, inclusive, engaging.

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.

Every corny thing that's said about living with nature - being in harmony with the earth, feeling the cycle of the seasons - happens to be true.

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