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.

Orchid hunting is a mortal occupation.

I think of myself as something of a connoisseur of procrastination, creative and dogged in my approach to not getting things done.

Living in a rural setting exposes you to so many marvelous things - the natural world and the particular texture of small-town life, and the exhilarating experience of open space.

You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it.

Libraries are what is best about us as a society: open, exciting, rich, informative, free, inclusive, engaging.

One of the very best reasons for having children is to be reminded of the incomparable joys of a snow day.

A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.

An ordinary life examined closely reveals itself to be exquisite and complicated and exceptional, somehow managing to be both heroic and plain.

There's a marvelous sense of mastery that comes with writing a sentence that sounds exactly as you want it to.

Even after I'd published three books and had been writing full-time for twenty years, my father continued to urge me to go to law school.

If you know the value of prayer, you will pray every second.

The end of the world can be cozy at times.

Please, Tommy. Please

There’s nothing more daring than showing up, putting ourselves out there and letting ourselves be seen.

You build a character, a shell, and if you build it right, something comes to live inside it.

There is no safer anchorage for our learning, our lives, and our public actions than that provided by Divine teachings.

I'm able to inspire other people, to see the potential of a career, they can look to me and see that they can do it.

The older we become, the more certain our future.

The soul creates, the mind reacts. The soul understands what the mind cannot conceive.

If you're willing to work harder than anybody else, you can create your own luck