Nonfiction-wha t the hell, that just says, this is nongrapefruit we're having this morning.

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.

I wish we would all just fall apart so I wouldn't have to listen to the downfall happen, so slowly, so painfully.

It doesn't take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go.

I'm pretty much all for poetry in public places - poetry on buses, poetry on subways, on billboards, on cereal boxes.

I have to say that elections, even in the most peaceful region, always make the hardest time for regional state institutions, including security structures.

I have no particular love for my species, but own to an exhaustless fund of compassion

I take life for what it has to offer me. I don't get aggravated about [getting older]. The wrinkles on my face are a natural process, so why should I get angry?

When I'm out on the field, I'm not scared of anyone.

Your nearness is the nearness of planets. I am the void between you. If I withdraw there will be no void for you to swim in.

Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.

Repeat reading for me shares a few things with hot-water bottles and thumbsucking: comfort, familiarity, the recurrence of the expected.