“Only once in the historical record has a jump on the San Andreas exceeded the jump of 1906. In 1857, near Tejon Pass outside Los Angeles, the two sides shifted thirty feet.” — John McPhee Copy Share Image
“Despite the recurrence of events in which the debris-basin system fails in its struggle to contain the falling mountains, people who live on the front line are for the most part calm and complacent. It appears that no amount of… — John McPhee Copy Share Image
“For nonfiction projects, ideas are everywhere. They just go by in a ceaseless stream.” — John McPhee Copy Share Image
“I’d much rather watch people do what they do than talk to them across a desk.” — John McPhee Copy Share Image
I used to sit in class and listen to the terms come floating down the room like paper airplanes. — John McPhee Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“If you have to ask that question, you wouldn't understand the answer.” — John McPhee Copy Share Image
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 Image
“The doctor listens in with a stethoscope and hears sounds of a warpath Indian drum. ” — John McPhee Copy Share Image
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 Image
