The way one approaches a wilderness story is to fashion a quest - find something that you are truly interested in finding or discovering.

My concept of drama requires obstacles, and there's no obstacles in comfort.

For many years I thought my job was to go to places where it would be difficult for most of the readers to ever get to. Now, in the more than 20 years I've been doing this, the concept of adventure-travel trips or expeditions by groups has sprung up. The places I went 20 years ago now have adventure-travel trips.

A constant ongoing joke among the people that I travel with is my absolutely hopeless sense of direction. I'm able to get lost a half an hour from camp. I don't know how I do this.

In my house, it is always a scramble from paycheck to paycheck.

You have to first be a writer and somebody who loves to write. If I couldn't travel, I would still write.

It's often hilarious to me that I'm writing about Tonga or some tropical place and there's a blizzard outside and the cows are on their backs with their hooves in the air.