There are those fortunate hours when the world consents to be made into a poem.
I learned a lot, investigative methodology - wise, from litigators - watching their process.
There’s no such thing as being totally ‘found’…the fun, I think, is in the searching.
There is space for a different kind of investigative reporting that's about immersion and obsessive attention to detail and deep listening.
What narrative journalism does is create a language or open up a space where someone can say, "Oh, this happened to me, too. "
I tend to only be able to obsess about one thing at once, and become fully engaged in and only interested in that thing. But in the longer term, a lot of my stories also give birth to other stories.
It's been nice, actually, to keep in touch with a lot of the people and families that I've written about. Like with the kids I was just writing about from Guatemala, who survived being kidnapped and fleeing violence, it was nice to just sit down in their living room and play bingo with them, go to dinner with the family. And sometimes not thinking about it in such a mechanistic "I am now coming to report and get what I need" way, but just spending time, helps you see a more natural version of who they are too.
I don't smoke or drink, but I will not tell you that I won't smoke again. Probably I will when I'm 60.
People have told me that Ive helped them feel confident, like they can say things they want to say. They can talk about feminism in class without people calling them a lesbian. Thats so amazing that I can make someone feel like that.
Our whole wedding cost 180 bucks. Afterward, we re-heated lasagna for everyone and set off fireworks.
Where the habits are simple, and the mind truly elevated, then is society in the best state.