He liked to go from A to B without inventing letters between.

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.

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.

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

The difference between a free human and a human is not the word "free" it's the word "human", because humanity can never be caged with the chains of slavery.

Art is inherently subversive. It’s destabilizing. It undermines what you already know and what you already think. It is the opposite of propaganda.

... alas! in the exercise of the arts, industry scarce bears the name of merit.

I would love to play a 1940's style fast-talking reporter lady. That's probably the dream.

I don't believe in prom,' I reminded her as she rounded a corner. I expertly angled my raisin bran to accomodate the g-forces. I'd done this before.

People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?

From the point where our ancestors started making tools, people have been unable to survive without the things they make; in this sense, it is making things that makes us human.

To be envied is a nobler fate than to be pitied.

It was kind of a decompression - from straight alcohol to mixed drinks to wine to spritzers - and then you're out.

A cat has a reputation to protect. If it had a halo, it would be worn cocked to one side.