Almost all Americans would recognize Anchorage, because Anchorage is that part of any city where the city has burst its seams and extruded Colonel Sanders.

If by some fiat I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence, this is the one I would choose: The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone.

With their four-dimensional minds, and in their interdisciplinary ultra verbal way, geologists can wiggle out of almost anything.

Rocks are records of events that took place at the time they formed. They are books. They have a different vocabulary, a different alphabet, but you learn how to read them.

In making war with nature, there was risk of loss in winning.

The doctor listens in with a stethoscope and hears sounds of a warpath Indian drum.

Taking things from one source is plagiarism; taking things from several sources is research.

Writing is a suspension of life in order to re-create life

I can't stand a sentence until it sounds right.

I used to sit in class and listen to the terms come floating down the room like paper airplanes.

Catch and release fishing may be cruelty masquerading as political correctness

Intimacy should not be given casually

You may not know what the outcome will be, but you have to try to give yourself a future, no matter how long it takes. You have to hold on to hope.

My dad gave me the gene to enjoy cooking, and to enjoy consuming good food and wine.

I reject discrimination against Muslim Americans - who are just as patriotic as we are.

It doesn't really matter to me how I make a difference, I just wanna make sure that I do.

Laughing and Love. They are both drugs.

The doctors may be mapping out the war games, but it is the nurses who make the conflict bearable.

Progress is often just a good idea away.

Toronto's one of my favourite places. If I were to move anywhere out of California, it would be Toronto. Definitely.

The first thing I do in any town I come to is ask if it has a bookstore.