Tracy Kidder
Tracy Kidder
John Tracy Kidderis an American writer of nonfiction books. He received the Pulitzer Prize for his The Soul of a New Machine, about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation. He has received praise and awards for other works, including his biography of Paul Farmer, a doctor and anthropologist, titled Mountains Beyond Mountains...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth12 November 1945
CountryUnited States of America
bag certain far lady lives moment truth
When we see a bag lady ... on the street, in that moment in our lives we try to get as far away from that person as possible, ... But the truth is, that person is me. That person is all of us, to a certain extent.
authors hearing john journalism kept novels rage tom written
New Journalism was such the rage with authors like Tom Wolfe and John McPhee. All I kept hearing was that non-fiction was so much more interesting than the novels being written at that time.
far judging nice people profession
You don't get far with people by judging them, and one of the nice things of my profession is I don't have to. It makes things a lot more fun, more interesting.
convince convincing crucible everybody great months trying war
For months I'd been trying to convince myself, by convincing everybody back home, that in the crucible of war I'd made that great transition,
imposing landscape means order painting
Painting the landscape was, in a sense, another means of exerting control, of imposing order on the disorderly.
brilliance charity degree idealism public witnessed
PIH combines idealism and brilliance to a degree I've never witnessed before in the public charity arena,
great impress seemed suddenly writer
Suddenly the idea of being a writer seemed much more romantic-and a great way to impress girls.
adolescent feeling incredibly late safer truck
From my experience, sure, if you were a truck driver, you could be incredibly unlucky, ... But I had the feeling that I was safer than I would have been back here as a late adolescent with a car.
certain decency level
I think there's a certain level of decency and honor.
nice town
The underside of a town as nice as Northampton can still be pretty gritty.
hate monastery worked
Andover was like a monastery back then. We worked all the time. The hazing was ferocious-I still hate to think about it.
boston russia sick
Paul Farmer has helped to build amazing health care system in one of the poorest areas of Haiti. He founded Partners in Health, which serves the destitute and the sick in many parts of the world from Haiti to Boston and from Russia to Peru.
writing done copying
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
commitment years two
When I select a topic, it's usually a commitment of two to three years of my life