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

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

The hardest thing was learning to write. I was 13, and the only writing I had done was for Social Studies. It consisted of copying passages right out of the encyclopedia

And I can imagine Farmer saying he doesn't care if no one else is willing to follow their example. He's still going to make these hikes, he'd insist, because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you're saying that their lives matter less than some others', and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world.

Writing is revision. All prose responds to work.

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