“Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching (I recommend the Red Pine translation), and started swimming from there. Excellent” — Michael Finkel Heaven and earth Copy Share Image
I committed pretty much the worst thing you can do, which is defraud the readers. — Michael Finkel Books Copy Share Image
I'd lied many times: to bolster my credentials, to elicit sympathy, to make myself appear less ordinary. — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
I never do formal interviews. I don't use a tape recorder. I take notes but occasionally. — Michael Finkel Interview Copy Share Image
“Two of life’s greatest pleasures, by my reckoning, are camping and reading—most gloriously, both at once.” — Michael Finkel Greatest pleasures Copy Share Image
“The life inside a book always felt welcoming to Knight. It pressed no demands on him, while the world of human interactions… — Michael Finkel Books Copy Share Image
You can read my stuff; there are not very many quotes. It's more impressionistic. — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
I moved at age 22 to Montana to be able to walk in really wild woods, where the chances of being killed… — Michael Finkel Age Copy Share Image
Modern life, especially with young children, so often seems like a mad rush... We so rarely take time to just do nothing… — Michael Finkel Children Copy Share Image
“He has seen the bottomless nonsense of our world and has decided, like most of us, to simply try to tolerate it.… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
There have always been hermits: people who want to get away from other humans. Literally, some of the first extant books and… — Michael Finkel Alone Copy Share Image
“Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, wrote that nothing can be expressed about solitude “that has not already been said better by the… — Michael Finkel Pine trees Copy Share Image
I firmly believe that if we all just took a little time - like 10 or 15 minutes a day - to… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“Japanese researchers at Chiba University found that a daily fifteen-minute walk in the woods caused significant decreases in cortisol, along with a… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“I have only in my life carried to an extreme what you have not dared to carry halfway, and what’s more, you… — Michael Finkel Cowardice Copy Share Image
“Knight, of course, felt that anyone's willing assistance tainted the whole thing. Either you are hidden or you're not, no middle ground.… — Michael Finkel Alone Copy Share Image
“One’s desire to be alone, biologists have found, is partially genetic and to some degree measurable. If you have low levels of… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“He pilfered a copy of Ulysses, but it was possibly the one book he did not finish. 'What's the point of it?… — Michael Finkel Books Copy Share Image
“He was confounded by the idea that passing the prime of your life in a cubicle, spending hours a day at a… — Michael Finkel Computers Copy Share Image
“If you’re born a human oddity,” says the introductory chapter of Very Special People, “every day of your life, starting in infancy,… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“Solitude increased my perception. But here’s the tricky thing: when I applied my increased perception to myself, I lost my identity. There… — Michael Finkel Identity Copy Share Image
“He was never once bored. He wasn’t sure, he said, that he even understood the concept of boredom. It applied only to… — Michael Finkel Art of life Copy Share Image
“Our genus, Homo, arose two and a half million years ago, and for more than ninety-nine percent of human existence, we all… — Michael Finkel Evolution Copy Share Image
“Asperger felt that autistic people could have beneficial talents, especially what he called a “particular originality of thought” that was often beautiful… — Michael Finkel Creativity Copy Share Image
“Christopher Knight, you could argue, is the most solitary known person in all of human history.” — Michael Finkel History Copy Share Image
“He’s a genius with my Prius,” says the co-owner of Left Bank Books, the town’s independent bookstore. The” — Michael Finkel Writer Copy Share Image
“Not till we have lost the world,” wrote Thoreau, “do we begin to find ourselves.” — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“There was no one to complain to in the woods, so I did not complain,' Knight said.” — Michael Finkel Knight Copy Share Image
I spent 12 years traveling more than six months a year. I really needed to see the world. — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
America might be the land of second chances, but it ain't the land of third chances. — Michael Finkel America Copy Share Image
“And what about a text message? Isn't that just using a telephone as a telegraph?” — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
I am guaranteeing you that if you see my byline on a story, it's going to be the cleanest story you've ever… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
I always fancied myself an outdoorsman, even though I'm a Jewish guy from the East Coast. — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“Even Henry David Thoreau, not known for kvetching, wrote in The Maine Woods that he was “seriously molested” by bugs.” — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“Our whole lives, Jefferies said, are wasted traveling in endless small circles; we are all “chained like a horse to an iron… — Michael Finkel Life Copy Share Image
“Virtually every natural feature in Maine, pond to peak, has a proper name, but Knight saw such titles as human impositions and… — Michael Finkel Maine Copy Share Image
“Herman Melville, the author of Moby-Dick, largely withdrew from public life for thirty years. “All profound things,” he wrote, “are preceded and… — Michael Finkel Books Copy Share Image
In my writing, I try to combine all my favorite elements of journalism - accuracy, real characters that exist on this planet… — Michael Finkel Books Copy Share Image
“If you have low levels of the pituitary peptide oxytocin—sometimes called the master chemical of sociability—and high quantities of the hormone vasopressin,… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“When he hears how songs are now shared and downloaded, Knight is equally unimpressed. "You're using your computers, your thousand-dollar machines, to… — Michael Finkel Computers Copy Share Image
