Because many squid have brain nerve fibres that are hundreds of times thicker than those of humans, neuroscientists have long used them for research. These nerve fibres have led to so many breakthroughs in the study of neurons that many scientists joke that the squid should receive a Nobel Prize.
To be honest, I used to always procrastinate when I write. I mean, I love writing, but I hate it.
I haven't read a word of Proust. And I listen obsessively to sports radio.
If I can find the right idea, I can get out of the way and do a good story.
I was a schoolteacher; I taught seventh and eighth grade, and I tried to write fiction on the side.
I had always been a huge Sherlock Holmes fan.
You have to go where the truth takes you, and that doesn't always take you in exactly the same place where people you speak to might want,or suspects may want. That's your ultimate obligation.
I don't hunt, I don't camp, and I get lost on my subway to work here in Times Square!
Memory is a code to who we are, a collection of not just dates and facts but also of epic emotional struggles, epiphanies, transformations.
A lot of the stories I write about have an element of mystery. They're crime stories or conspiracy stories or quests. They do have built into them revelations and twists. But the revelations, to me, come from seeing history as it's unfolding, or life as it's unfolding.
One of the things I believe strongly in is developing institutions - legal, press, bureaucracies, academies - that are rooted in the pursuit of impartial truth. That aren't simply just bent to partisan ends or are corrupted for the powerful or for other ulterior motives.
I never want to make people upset, but sometimes we may. When I interview people, I try to make it clear that our obligation is to what we uncover and to telling that story and to presenting it fairly and making sure everyone has a say.
The political hero is not like the sports champion or matinee idol or daring inventor; like the war hero, he is born only of tragedy.
