Animals can seem more pure. Without complication, I mean, animals are selfless. What animals do for us, they do out of instinct.

I am dismayed to realize that much of the advice I used to parcel out to aspiring writers has passed its sell-by date.

I approach stories as a private educational enterprise: I want to learn about something. I teach myself through research, reporting, and thinking, and then, when I feel like I know the story, I tell it to readers.

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

The genius of a folk melody or story is not the feeling that it's original but quite the opposite - the feeling that it has existed all along.

I have no idea how to get in touch with anyone anymore. Everyone, it seems, has a home phone, a cell phone, a regular e-mail account, a Facebook account, a Twitter account, and a Web site. Some of them also have a Google Voice number. There are the sentimental few who still have fax machines.

Dog parks are more cliquish than any other human gathering with the possible exception of seventh grade. Deal with it.