Writing is revision. All prose responds to work.

What I like about non-fiction is that it covers such a huge territory. The best non-fiction is also creative

When writers stop believing in their own stories, readers tend to sense it.

I usually write about ordinary people and ordinary things, but Paul Farmer is the least ordinary person I've ever met... He's the leader of a small group of people who hope to cure a sick world, and I hope my book can help in some small way.

I am grateful to Stacy Schiff first of all because she can write a sentence-because she offers us her scholarship with wit, clarity, and grace. Once again, she has done what only the best writers can do: she has made the world new, again.

I'm going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season.

I tell beginning readers to read a lot and write a lot. If you want to write a book, find a subject that's really worth the time and effort you'll put in.