Real Beauty Is So Deep You Have

Because You Have Seen Something Doesn't Mean You Can Explain It. Differing Interpretations Will Always Abound, Even When Good Minds Come To Bear. The Kernel Of Indisputable Information Is A Dot In Space; Interpretations Grow Out Of The Desire To Make This Point A Line, To Give It Direction. The Directions In Which It Can Be Sent, The Uses To Which It Can Be Put By A Culturally, Professionally, And Geographically Diverse Society Are Almost Without Limit. The Possibilities Make Good Scientists Chary.

When I Sit At That Typewriter, I Have To Be Frightened Of What I'm Trying To Do. I'm Frightened By My Own Belief That I Can Actually Get A Story Down On Paper.

For So Many Centuries, The Exchange Of Gifts Has Held Us Together. It Has Made It Possible To Bridge The Abyss Where Language Struggles.

When We Enter The Landscape To Learn Something, We Are Obligated, I Think, To Pay Attention Rather Than Constantly To Pose Questions. To Approach The Land As We Would A Person, By Opening An Intelligent Conversation. And To Stay In One Place, To Make Of That One, Long Observation A Fully Dilated Experience. We Will Always Be Rewarded If We Give The Land Credit For More Than We Imagine, And If We Imagine It As Being More Complex Even Than Language. In These Ways We Begin, I Think, To Find A Home, To Sense How To Fit A 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.