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

You can write about anything, and if you write well enough, even the reader with no intrinsic interest in the subject will become involved.

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.

Most teachers have little control over school policy or curriculum or choice of texts or special placement of students, but most have a great deal of autonomy inside the classroom. To a degree shared by only a few other occupations, such as police work, public education rests precariously on the skill and virtue of the people at the bottom of the institutional pyramid.

God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us

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.

I wrote a novel about the combat experiences I didn't have in Vietnam.