181 Quotes by Tracy Kidder

Too much protocol.

What interests me is trying to catch the reflection of the human being on the page. I’m interested in how ordinary people live their lives.

How does one person with great talents come to exert a force on the world? I think in Farmer’s case the answer lies somewhere in the apparent craziness, the sheer impracticality, of half of everything he does, including the hike to Casse.

I tell beginning readers to read a lot and write a lot. If you want to write a book, find a subject that’s really worth the time and effort you’ll put in.

Yet it is a fact, not entirely lost on management consultants, that some people would rather work twelve hours a day of their own choosing than eight that are prescribed. Provided, of course, that the work is interesting. That was the main thing.

If two smart and logical people disagree it’s because they are acting on different information.

The physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely be solved by them.” This last was Farmer’s favorite.

In a very basic way, a prominent landmark such as Mt. Holyoke tells you where you are. They let you know that you’re not the first person in a place.

Doctors are notorious for taking peculiar views of their own bodies. They tend to develop hypochondria in medical school and, once they get over it, if they do, tend to think they’re invulnerable.