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Whatever the practical value of the Walden experiment may be, there is no question that the book is one of the most vital and pithy ever written.

I like the story about Henry David Thoreau, who, when he was on his death bed, his family sent for a minister. The minister said, 'Henry, have you made your peace with God?' Thoreau said, 'I didn't know we'd quarreled.'

Henry David Thoreau was an oddball job quitter and ne'er-do-well who evolved into the bearded sage of literature, natural history, and civil liberties.

I grew up in Belle Harbor, which is in New York City, but it has the most powerful sense of nature and seasons. It wasn't even the beach and the water. I just dreamt about everything that had to do with nature. I read about Thoreau.

Following the teaching of Gandhi and Thoreau, Dr. King, it set me on a path. And I never looked back.

The savagery and power of Edith Wharton's ghost stories surprised me.

I'm no Thoreau.

When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands.

Robert Mapplethorpe asked me to write our story the day before he died. I had never written a book of nonfiction, and so it took me almost two decades to write that book.

I began writing in the 4th grade. As a matter of fact, I produced a play for the entire school. It was about Leif Ericson and the discovery of America.