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

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

I think if the writing comes too easily, it shows - it's usually hard to read.

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

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.

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 know that to write you have to have stories you want to tell. You have to keep your mind alive, and you have to work hard.