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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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