“When Chen Meizi had chosen her specialty, she didn't expect to find a job that matched her abilities; she expected to find new abilities that matched the available jobs.” — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
The American appetite for loneliness impressed me, and there was something about this solitude that freed conversation. One night at a bar, I met a man, and within five minutes he explained that he had just been released from prison.… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“The Chinese people had invented the compass, paper, the printing press, gunpowder, the seismograph, the crossbow, and the umbrella; they had sailed to Africa… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“I realized that as a thinking person his advantage lay precisely in his lack of formal education. Nobody told him what to think, and… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“People with good memories are liable to be crushed by the weight of their suffering. Only those with bad memories, the fittest to survive,… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“The decorating scheme of Big World is simple in theme but complicated in execution. The theme is: things that shine and things that make… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“When Chen Meizi had chosen her specialty, she didn't expect to find a job that matched her abilities; she expected to find new abilities… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“In China, the transition has been to abrupt that many traffic patterns come directly from pedestrian life - people drive the way they walk.… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“Whenever somebody turned his head, he shouted, "Stop looking behind you!: There was a strict rule against head turns. When reversing, you were supposed… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
Sometimes I thought of the Peace Corps as a reverse refugee organization, displacing all of us lost Midwesterners, and it was probably the only… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“In 1923, National Geographic Magazine claimed that the Great Wall is visible to the human eye from the moon. (In truth, nobody on the… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“Sometimes they seemed to grasp instinctively at the worst of both worlds: the worst modern habits, the worst traditional beliefs.” — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“When you live in China as a foreigner, there are two critical moments of recognition. The first comes immediately upon arrival, when you are… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“I like to play chess. I moved to a small town, and nobody played chess there, but one guy challenged me to checkers. I… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“Beijing maps featured cloverleaf exchanges that could have been designed by M. C. Escher.” — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
In China, much of life involves skirting regulations, and one of the basic truths is that forgiveness comes easier than permission. — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
“I looked at the terraced hills and noticed how the people had changed the earth, taming it into dizzying staircases of rice paddies; but… — Peter Hessler Copy Share Image
