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 LOPEZMy faith is in my colleagues. And when I meet other writers, journalists, who’ve been doing this for a long time, trying to make us aware of what it is that we’re living in, I put my faith in those people.
More Barry Lopez Quotes
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People 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 LOPEZ -
If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.
BARRY LOPEZ -
My faith is in my colleagues. And when I meet other writers, journalists, who’ve been doing this for a long time, trying to make us aware of what it is that we’re living in, I put my faith in those people.
BARRY LOPEZ -
The land urges us to come around to an understanding of ourselves.
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If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox.
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My function as a writer is to provide an atmosphere in which people can think wisely about what we’re doing on this planet.
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The writer works on the inside and the critic works on the outside. I don’t know what it looks like on the outside, sometimes. It’s not that I’m not interested-it’s not where I live. I live inside the story.
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The gaze of the wolf reached into our soul.
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It is the imagination that gives shape to the universe.
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One 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.
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You can’t learn anything from saguaro cactus, from ocotillo. They are just passing through; their roots, their much heralded dormancy in the dry season, these are only illusions of permanence. They know even less than you do.
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You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
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One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse.
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In behaving respectfully toward all that the land contains, it is possible to imagine a stifling ignorance falling away from us.
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To put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together.
BARRY LOPEZ