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.

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.

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.

You must be a light unto yourself.

I regret not having had more time with my kids when they were growing up.

The language of priorities is the religion of socialism.

It's about the time I was riding my Motorcycle, going down a mountain road at 150 miles an hour, playing my guitar.

She was thirty-five, and she did not look a minute younger.

If you don't have passion, you have no energy, and if you don't have energy, you have nothing.

Christ's mission is to release the divine into our conscious knowing. He awakens the impulse in humanity to rise above his lower nature and be aware of his higher nature that dwells within.

I think there's a bit of me in every character. Basically it just depends on what happens with the character.

Ignorance can't be pardoned. Only cured.

There is a difference between feeding someone and eating dinner with them. If every Christian at home just made room for the stranger we would end homelessness overnight.