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.

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.

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

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.

Things were here before you and will be here after you're gone. The geographic features, especially, give you a sense of your own place in the world and in time

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