The hardest thing was learning to write. I was 13, and the only writing I had done was for Social Studies. It consisted of copying passages right out of the encyclopedia

The goofiness of radicals thinking they have to dress in Guatemalan peasant clothes. The poor don't want you to look like them. They want you to dress in a suit and go get them food and water. Comma.

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

I do believe that enduring geological features are important, though I don't think I can be clear about exactly why.

That's when I feel most alive, he told me once on an airplane, when I'm helping people.

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.

...Attempts at imitation would put the emphasis where it didn't belong. The goal was to improve the lives of others, not oneself.