When I select a topic, it's usually a commitment of two to three years of my life

I want my prose to be as clear as a pane of glass.

Public education rests precariously on the skill and virtue of the people at the bottom of the institutional pyramid.

People say you cant teach writing, but I think thats nonsense.

At first, I spend about four hours a day writing. Toward the end of a book, I spend up to 16 hours a day on it, because all I want to do is make it good and get it done.

You do the right thing even if it makes you feel bad. The purpose of life is not to be happy but to be worthy of happiness.

If you had an essentially happy childhood, that tends to dwell with you.