He would come to feel that history, even more than memory, distorts the present of the past by focusing on big events and making one forget that most people living in the present are otherwise preoccupied, that for them omens often don't exist.

~ Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder History Memory

... You may not see the ocean, but right now we are in the middle of the ocean, and we have to keep swimming.

~ Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder Inspirational Attitude

You do the right thing even if it makes you feel bad. The purpose of life is not to be happy but to be worthy of happiness.

~ Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder Happiness Happy Purpose Of Life Right Thing Virtuous Worthy

How to preside over your own internal disorder? Finding the I that can represent the pack of you is the first challenge of the memoirist.

~ Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder Memoir Writing Writing Process

When writers stop believing in their own stories, readers tend to sense it.

~ Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder Writing Writing Process

I usually write about ordinary people and ordinary things, but Paul Farmer is the least ordinary person I've ever met... He's the leader of a small group of people who hope to cure a sick world, and I hope my book can help in some small way.

~ Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder Leader Book World

The hardest thing was learning to write. I was 13, and the only writing I had done was for Social Studies. It consisted of copying passages right out of the encyclopedia.

~ Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder Writing Done Right