I'm trying to find out what's actually true, which is nearly always something, if not a world of things, that you can't read in books.

You're after something - not a story, but a certain, exquisitely intense encounter with beauty - and the only way to find it is to tiptoe past the dragon's cave.

Hawaii is the birthplace of surfing, and many Hawaiians or part-Hawaiians surf, but in the rest of the United States it's a pretty white sport.

Memoir is a weird genre for a reporter. You end up investigating your own memories, reporting out your past.

I remember surfing in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, even Madeira, when local fishermen had never seen a surfboard before, and refused to believe that we could ride a wave on one.

The differences between the received wisdom, the standard version of events, and the facts on the ground may be subtle or they may be stark, even profound.

I always wanted to write. While I was on a long surf trip, supporting myself with various day jobs, I was working hard on a novel. My third novel, in fact.

Even wars, big conflicts that have drawn a lot of news coverage, sometimes seem to me to have a center that hasn't been described, that might yet be glimpsed if approached from some odd angle.

The lasting physical and mental health effects of long term very high altitude exposure appear to be remarkably similar to daily heavy smoking.

If we do not master ourselves, we will be a slave to ourselves.

Out of complexity, find simplicity!

Patience is also a form of action.

I'm 48, which is a bit of a shock to me. Why only last year I thought I was a precocious young thing!

His brows rose. “And how is it that you have come to be such an expert on scrapes and bruises?” “I’m a governess,” she said. Because really, that ought to be explanation enough.

When you're in show business no matter what you're doing it's an insecure business.

I would guess that about 75% of my stories are like that - personal experiences that I probably over-milk.

Secular humanism is avowedly non-religious. It is a eupraxsophy (good practical wisdom), which draws its basic principles and ethical values from science, ethics, and philosophy.

I want to write the sort the book that my people want to read, even if the market is small.