My fight-or-flight mechanism... had served me well in Gaza, in Afghanistan, and all the places I'd been.
I think that it's human nature to categorize and label things. That's generally the way that the medical and psychological professions work. You look at elements of what you have, and you are able to categorize it, and then you can cure it. That's generally what works.
In my writing, I try to combine all my favorite elements of journalism - accuracy, real characters that exist on this planet - with all my favorite elements of literature: a sense of flow, of propulsion, of wanting to read every sentence.
Not to get too maudlin, but I think all mistakes are tests for one's mettle.
I moved at age 22 to Montana to be able to walk in really wild woods, where the chances of being killed by a bear or mountain lion are not zero.
Modern life, especially with young children, so often seems like a mad rush... We so rarely take time to just do nothing - not look at our phones, not read the news.
I always fancied myself an outdoorsman, even though I'm a Jewish guy from the East Coast.
I spent 12 years traveling more than six months a year. I really needed to see the world.
I'd lied many times: to bolster my credentials, to elicit sympathy, to make myself appear less ordinary.
