Susan Orlean Quotes

Keeping animals, I have learned, is all about water. Who even knew chickens drank water? I didn't, but they do, and a lot.

I love convincing a reader that an unusual or seemingly ordinary subject is worth his or her time - it's part of the fun for me as a writer.

I love writing traditional magazine pieces, and especially their breadth of reporting and the deliberateness of the writing.

I like the idea that people get engaged thinking about design, about creativity. I don't see how it could possibly be bad.

Oversized houses, like oversized cars, seem to be a particularly American fixation.

Why, I wonder, should the popularity of a news story matter to me? Does it mean it's a good story or just a seductive one?

You can find out anything you want about a car now, and especially every bit of information about the price, without relying on the dealers.

I suppose I do have one embarrassing passion- I want to know what it feels like to care about something passionately.

Knowledge is a beautiful thing, but there are a few things I wish I didn't know.

On the very same day that I ordered an iPad 2, I went shopping to buy myself a letter opener. I like to cover all my bases.

Dog parks are more cliquish than any other human gathering with the possible exception of seventh grade. Deal with it.

Every single one of my books had its title changed almost as we were going to press, for all sorts of different reasons.

I am dismayed to realize that much of the advice I used to parcel out to aspiring writers has passed its sell-by date.

Unlimited choice is paralyzing. The Internet has made this form of paralysis due to option overload a standard feature of comfortable modern life.

The biggest problem with working at a treadmill desk: the compulsion to announce constantly that you are working at a treadmill desk.

I wonder what book signings will be like when most of the books we read are electronic. Will authors sign something else? A flyer, perhaps? A special kind of card devised for the purpose?

Here's a habit I never thought I'd develop: I gravitate to anything online that's marked 'most popular' or 'most e-mailed.' And I hate myself a little bit every time I do.

I rarely listen to commercial radio, and when I do, I'm shocked by how many ads there are, and how annoying they are, and how bad the radio station usually is.

We're fascinated by animals because it's almost like having Martians living among us. We can see some familiarity in them, but they're entirely different creatures.

I love Japanese design and fabrics. I also love people who make clothes for mass consumption but do it well and cleverly.

I think the responsibility of running a huge business, which happens if you become a successful designer, probably makes you more careful.

Writing about unknown people means I spend a lot of time arguing to the reader about why it's worth knowing about them. That's challenging, but then the piece is pure discovery.

Sometimes I think I've figured out some order in the universe, but then I find myself in Florida

If you had really loved something, wouldn't a little bit of it always linger?

It is hard to imagine Thomas Kinkade as anything less than supremely self-assured.

Sometimes I think I've figured out some order in the universe, but then I find myself in Florida, swamped by incongruity and paradox, and I have to start all over again.