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

Writing is revision. All prose responds to work.

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.

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

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

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

The combination of domesticity and wildness - that's a deep expression