The most intelligent thing we can do is love, not reason.
BARRY LOPEZWhen I sit at that typewriter, I have to be frightened of what I’m trying to do. I’m frightened by my own belief that I can actually get a story down on paper.
More Barry Lopez Quotes
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The gaze of the wolf reached into our soul.
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real beauty is so deep you have to move into darkness to understand it.
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I know of no restorative of heart, body, and soul more effective against hopelessness than the restoration of the Earth.
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I lay there knowing something eerie ties us to the world of animals. Sometimes the animals pull you backward into it. You share hunger and fear with them like salt in blood.
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Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion.
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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.
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Would the last animal, eating garbage and living on the last scrap of land, his mate dead, would he still forgive you?
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The wolf exerts a powerful influence on the human imagination. It takes your stare and turns it back on you
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It does not demean men to want to be what they imagine the wolf to be, but it does demean them to kill the animal for it.
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Throughout the centuries we have projected on to the wolf the qualities we most despise and fear in ourselves.
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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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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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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.
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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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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.
BARRY LOPEZ