...find a way to build with language a bridge between a failure to believe and a witness to what is incomprehensible.

Physical places ... shape the attitudes of visitors arriving from distant homelands ... the nature of the visited place affects the very tone of a journal entry. It influences the selection of the facts one chooses to jot down about that place.

If I were to offer any advice to young writers, it would be this: be discriminating and be discerning about the work you set for yourself. That done, be the untutored traveler, the eager reader, the enthusiastic listener. Put what you learn together carefully, and then write thoughtfully, with respect both for the reader and your sources.

The writer works on the inside and the critic works on the outside. I don't know what it looks like on the outside, sometimes. It's not that I'm not interested-it's not where I live. I live inside the story.