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

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

Paul Farmer has helped to build amazing health care system in one of the poorest areas of Haiti. He founded Partners in Health, which serves the destitute and the sick in many parts of the world from Haiti to Boston and from Russia to Peru.

I want my prose to be as clear as a pane of glass.

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

If you live in the same small place long enough, something you don't like is bound to happen