“going to have an industrial society you must have places that will look terrible. Other places you set aside—to say, ‘This is the way it was.’ ” — John McPhee Copy Share Image
“For nonfiction projects, ideas are everywhere. They just go by in a ceaseless stream.” — John McPhee Copy Share
“I’d much rather watch people do what they do than talk to them across a desk.” — John McPhee Copy Share
I used to sit in class and listen to the terms come floating down the room like paper airplanes. — John McPhee Copy Share
“A lead is good not because it dances, fires cannons, or whistles like a train but because it is absolute to what follows.” — John McPhee Copy Share
“If basketball was going to enable Bradley to make friends, to prove that a banker's son is as good as the next fellow, to… — John McPhee Copy Share
“Since most callers have until moments before been completely unaware that there are bears in New Jersey, there is often in their voices a… — John McPhee Copy Share
“Incandescent carbon particles, by the tens of millions, leap free of the log and wave like banners, as flame. Several hundred significantly different chemical… — John McPhee Copy Share
Almost all Americans would recognize Anchorage, because Anchorage is that part of any city where the city has burst its seams and extruded Colonel… — John McPhee Copy Share
“The doctor listens in with a stethoscope and hears sounds of a warpath Indian drum. ” — John McPhee Copy Share
On a certain scale, it does look like I do a lot. But that’s my day, all day long, sitting there wondering when I’m… — John McPhee Copy Share
“There is no Weatherfax map on the Stella Lykes—only the barometer, the barographs, the teletypes from NOAA. The radar can see a storm, but… — John McPhee Copy Share
Taking things from one source is plagiarism; taking things from several sources is research. — John McPhee Copy Share
