“A piece of writing has to start somewhere, go somewhere, and sit down when it gets there.” — John McPhee Copy Share Image
“Speaking of libraries: A big open-stack academic or public library is no small pleasure to work in. You're, say, trying to do… — John McPhee Copy Share Image
A writer has to have some kind of compulsive drive to do his work. If you don't have it, you'd better find… — John McPhee Copy Share Image
“If you lack confidence in setting one word after another and sense that you are stuck in a place from which you… — 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
“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 Image
Taking things from one source is plagiarism; taking things from several sources is research. — John McPhee Copy Share Image
