"There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount, a perfect ratio of water to rock, of water to sand, ensuring that wide, free, open, generous spacing among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid west so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack of water here, unless you try to establish a city where no city should be." — Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
"We are animals. We, like the otter, can digest the flesh of smelt in our gut and can roll to our backs, hands clutched over our chests. We, like the smelt, come to the edge of the sea to live and we scatter when there is fear. We lick our fingers clean, sleep when we must, and dream when we sleep, like any animal. We are also animals who are taking up an incredible amount of space for our size." — Craig Childs The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
"I’m a spokesperson not only for myself and my people but for those that aren’t able to speak for themselves. And that’s the land, the water, the air, and the animals. They’re not able to speak for themselves or advocate." — Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk
"What counts as valuable seems arbitrary; the human demarcation line seems blurry. Even for an expert, it’s hard to tell what’s natural or native at this point because the changes in the ecosystem are similarly subtle and blurred. Ranchers argue that irrigation smooths out the seasonal variation in stream flow and recharges the aquifer, creating habitat, making it better for people and wildlife. But it’s not necessarily historically native animals that would be there if ranchers weren’t watering the land. That’s the tricky part of trying to recreate an unclear past." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"The creature at your feet dismissed as a bug or a weed is a creation in and of itself. It has a name, a million-year history, and a place in the world. Its genome adapts it to a special niche in an ecosystem. The ethical value substantiated by close examination of its biology is that the life forms around us are too old, too complex, and potentially too useful to be carelessly discarded." — Edward Wilson The Future of Life
"Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time." — Unknown
"Every living thing has the same wish to flourish again and again. Beyond that, our differences are quibbles. I do not want to be a lonely species set adrift from all the rest." — Craig Childs The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
"When my companion finally turns and walks into the meadow toward the road, I linger. I am not ready to render myself back into a human being, not ready to return to a car and an asphalt highway. I want to stay just a moment longer. I peer into the forest, where every bit of darkness and light has a face, a set of eyes looking out at me. Nothing emerges. I feel the tug at my back, my friend walking away, and I turn to catch up and become human again." — Craig Childs The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
"I have written of inanimate things, rock and water, frost and sun; and it might seem as though this were not a living world. But I have wanted to come to the living things through the forces that create them, for the mountain is one and indivisible, and rock, soil, water and air are no more integral to it than what grows from the soil and breathes the air. All are aspects of one entity, the living mountain. The disintegrating rock, the nurturing rain, the quickening sun, the seed, the root, the bird—all are one." — Nan Shepherd The Living Mountain
"…I looked straight into bronze-colored bobcat eyes and held my breath, for longer than I knew I could. After two moments (his and mine) that were surely not equal—for a predator must often pass hours without an eyeblink, while a human can grow restless inside ten seconds—we broke eye contact." — Barbara Kingsolver Small Wonder
"You encounter an animal like this, and it is so vivid it detaches from time." — Craig Childs The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
"The desert changed instantly. It turned from stones to coyotes." — Craig Childs The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
"The dog is gone. We miss him. When the doorbell rings, no one barks. When we come home late, there is no one waiting for us. We still find his white hairs here and there around the house and on our clothes. We pick them up. We should throw them away. But they are all we have left of him. We don’t throw them away. We have a wild hope—if only we collect enough of them, we will be able to put the dog back together again." — Lydia Davis Can't and Won't, "The Dog Hair"
"It gave me the stare of a cat, disinterested but true." — Craig Childs The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
"The cat speaks in symbols." — Craig Childs The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
"One thing more dangerous than getting between a grizzly sow and her cub is getting between a businessman and a dollar bill." — Edward Abbey A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
