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

...Attempts at imitation would put the emphasis where it didn't belong. The goal was to improve the lives of others, not oneself.

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

That's when I feel most alive, he told me once on an airplane, when I'm helping people.

... "You may not see the ocean, but right now we are in the middle of the ocean, and we have to keep swimming.

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

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.