National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.

The life we all live is amateurish and accidental; it begins in accident and proceeds by trial and error toward dubious ends.

He used to tell me, 'Do what you like to do. It'll probably turn out to be what you do best.

Homesickness is a great teacher. It taught me, during an endless rainy fall, that I came from the arid lands, and like where I came from. I was used to dry clarity and sharpness in the air. I was used to horizons that either lifted into jagged ranges or rimmed the geometrical circle of the flat world. I was used to seeing a long way. I was used to earth colors--tan, rusty red, toned white--and the endless green of Iowa offended me. I was used to a sun that came up over mountains and went down behind other mountains. I missed the color and smell of sagebrush, and the sight of bare ground.

Creation is a knack which is empowered by practice, and like almost any skill, it is lost if you don't practice it.

No one who has studied Western history can cling to the belief that the Nazis invented genocide.

I shall be richer all my life for this sorrow