I always want to write something better than the last book.

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.

In order to go on with our lives, we are always capable of making the ominous into the merely strange.

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

The combination of domesticity and wildness - that's a deep expression

In a very basic way, a prominent landmark such as Mt. Holyoke tells you where you are. They let you know that you're not the first person in a place

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.