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All Quotes by author - Michael Finkel
" America might be the land of second chances, but it ain't the land of third chances. "
America
Land
Second
" As a writer, I spend a lot of time alone, and I like it. I'm also a long-distance runner, and I love long, solo road trips; I can drive literally all night, drinking coffee, and not even listening to the radio, just strangely content sifting through the random thoughts in my own head. "
Road
Alone
Coffee
" Extraordinary things happen in solitude. "
Extraordinary
Solitude
Things Happen
" Frightening things happen in solitude. "
Solitude
Things Happen
Happen
" I always fancied myself an outdoorsman, even though I'm a Jewish guy from the East Coast. "
Jewish
Guy
Always
" I am a writer. It's like a third arm to me. "
I Am
Like
Me
" I am guaranteeing you that if you see my byline on a story, it's going to be the cleanest story you've ever read. "
Story
Going
You
" I committed pretty much the worst thing you can do, which is defraud the readers. "
You
Much
Pretty
" I'd lied many times: to bolster my credentials, to elicit sympathy, to make myself appear less ordinary. "
Myself
Sympathy
Ordinary
" I firmly believe that if we all just took a little time - like 10 or 15 minutes a day - to do nothing but sit calmly with our thoughts, this world would be a much better place. "
World
Believe
Sit
" I'm always theoretically opposed to capital punishment as a matter of policy; like, I don't believe a state should put its citizens to death. "
Punishment
Believe
Death
" I moved at age 22 to Montana to be able to walk in really wild woods, where the chances of being killed by a bear or mountain lion are not zero. "
Age
Lion
Mountain
" In an odd sort of way, the computer and the Internet is the hermit's ideal form of communication. You don't have to see anyone. To send an email, you don't have to talk to anyone. You can just send it, and they'll read it on their own. The Internet has been really good for hermits. "
Communication
You
Good
" I never do formal interviews. I don't use a tape recorder. I take notes but occasionally. "
Notes
Take
Never
" In my writing, I try to combine all my favorite elements of journalism - accuracy, real characters that exist on this planet - with all my favorite elements of literature: a sense of flow, of propulsion, of wanting to read every sentence. "
Flow
Writing
Literature
" I spent 12 years traveling more than six months a year. I really needed to see the world. "
Years
Year
World
" I spent most of my youth in Montana, where there are long, cold winters, but Maine has the coldest winters you could imagine. Not only are they long, not only does it snow, but it gets really damp. It's a wet cold with a lot of wind. "
Youth
You
Wind
" I tend to be a fairly spirited person, but I've never hated anyone more than I hated Christian Longo after his trial, when I realized his guilt and that I had been partially duped. "
Never
Person
More
" I think many people have this sense that something about modern society - the screens, the noise, the traffic, the constant busyness - has approached a point where living in the world feels somewhat unhealthy. "
Living
World
Society
" I think that it's human nature to categorize and label things. That's generally the way that the medical and psychological professions work. You look at elements of what you have, and you are able to categorize it, and then you can cure it. That's generally what works. "
Nature
Think
Look
" Modern life, especially with young children, so often seems like a mad rush... We so rarely take time to just do nothing - not look at our phones, not read the news. "
Mad
News
Children
" My advice for telling someone else's story is to try not to consciously bend the story in any particular direction - to listen with an open mind, to include the good with the bad, to attempt to quell one's biases and allow the person you're writing about to emerge as wholly as possible, warts and all. "
Direction
Writing
Good
" My fight-or-flight mechanism... had served me well in Gaza, in Afghanistan, and all the places I'd been. "
Had
Me
Been
" Not to get too maudlin, but I think all mistakes are tests for one's mettle. "
Tests
Think
Mistakes
" Perhaps one could say I've worked in South Africa too long, but I believe in forgiveness, especially when a person admits a mistake, asks for forgiveness, and works to right a wrong. "
Mistake
Believe
Forgiveness
" There have always been hermits: people who want to get away from other humans. Literally, some of the first extant books and poems found in Mesopotamia and China mention people living alone in the woods. It's this primal fascination that exists across all cultures and all times. "
Alone
Living
People
" There's a difference between lying and not being straight. "
Lying
Straight
Difference
" The so-called modern conveniences may, in fact, be extremely inconvenient - everything seems to exist as a distraction from any sort of deeper thought or contemplation. "
Everything
Distraction
Thought
" You can read my stuff; there are not very many quotes. It's more impressionistic. "
More
You
Very
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