“A seagoing lieutenant in the United States Navy once asked me if merchant ships have radar. After learning that they do, he asked if the mates use grease pencils. He seemed surprised. Merchant mariners, for their part, tend to characterize… — 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 prove that he could do without being the greatest-end-ever at Missouri, to prove that he was not chicken, and to live up to his mother's championship standards, and if he was going to have some moments… — 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 component of alarm, up to and including terror. McConnell’s response is calmer than pavement. She speaks in tones that range from ho to hum. “Yes, there are bears in your area,” she says, and goes on… — 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 reactions are now going on. For example, a carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms, coming out of the breaking cellulose, may lock together and form methane, natural gas. The methane, burning (combining with oxygen), turns into… — John McPhee Copy Share
“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
