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All my high school papers were written in the rare book room.

I started getting letters from college in the tenth grade.

When I left Yale, I was prepared to write anything.

I wrote things for the school's newspaper, and - like all teenagers - I dabbled in poetry.

I had an insanely long commute - New York to D.C. - when I worked at 'National Geographic.' I hate to waste time, so I spent my time by writing about my life on the premise that I might be able to pitch those as short essays to magazines. It wasn't until later that I realized that I was writing a book.

I was a good student - a geek, really - editor of the school paper, thought I was going to go to university.

I always have Moleskine notebooks on my desk. I am a big journaler. Every day I write down where I went, who I spoke to and what it was all about. Richard Branson told me to do that.

Essays just aren't my thing: no matter how hard I tried, it seemed I was always a bit average.

I made good grades in school.