I Approach Stories As A Private Educational

When I Was A Kid, Phone Calls Were A Premium Commodity; Only The Very Coolest Kids Had A Phone Line Of Their Own, And Long-distance Phone Calls Were Made After Eleven, When The Rates Went Down, Unless You Were Flamboyant With Your Spending. Then Phone Calls Became As Cheap As Dirt And As Constant As Rain, And I Was On The Phone All The Time.

The Old Orchid Hunter Lay Back On His Pillow, His Body Limp... 'you'll Curse The Insects,' He Said At Least, 'and You'll Curse The Natives... The Sun Will Burn You By Day And The Cold Will Shrivel You By Night. You'll Be Racked By Fever And Tormented By A Hundred Discomforts, But You'll Go On. For When A Man Falls In Love With Orchids, He'll Do Anything To Possess The One He Wants. It's Like Chasing A Green-eyed Woman Or Taking Cocaine... It's A Sort Of Madness.

I Might Have Missed My Calling As An Editor. In The Spring, The Sight Of My Empty Garden Beds Gives Me The Horticultural Equivalent Of Writers' Block: So Much Space! So Many Plants To Choose Among, And Yet None Of Them Seem Quite Right!

I Love Writing Traditional Magazine Pieces, And Especially Their Breadth Of Reporting And The Deliberateness Of The Writing.

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.