The land is like poetry: it is inexplicably coherent, it is transcendent in its meaning, and it has the power to elevate a consideration of human life.
BARRY LOPEZThe land is like poetry: it is inexplicably coherent, it is transcendent in its meaning, and it has the power to elevate a consideration of human life.
BARRY LOPEZThe attempt to close the gap between what is known and what IS, is the temptation behind the apple in Genesis.
BARRY LOPEZFor so many centuries, the exchange of gifts has held us together. It has made it possible to bridge the abyss where language struggles.
BARRY LOPEZWe cannot, of course, save the World because we do not have authority over its parts. We can serve the world though. That is everyone’s calling, to lead a life that helps.
BARRY LOPEZWould the last animal, eating garbage and living on the last scrap of land, his mate dead, would he still forgive you?
BARRY LOPEZOne of the great dreams of man must be to find some place between the extremes of nature and civilization where it is possible to live without regret.
BARRY LOPEZThere are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions.
BARRY LOPEZThe land urges us to come around to an understanding of ourselves.
BARRY LOPEZThere’s so much to be afraid of.
BARRY LOPEZThe most intelligent thing we can do is love, not reason.
BARRY LOPEZPeople think that if you’ve written a book and somebody’s given you a pat on the back then, you know, it’s all – you’re all settled, you know? You’re going to be fine. I know that if I’m not confused, and really afraid, my work isn’t going to be any good.
BARRY LOPEZTo put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together.
BARRY LOPEZSometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.
BARRY LOPEZHave we come all this way, I wondered, only to be dismantled by our own technologies, to be betrayed by political connivance or the impersonal avarice of a corporation?
BARRY LOPEZEverything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion.
BARRY LOPEZOne must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse.
BARRY LOPEZ