429 Quotes by Terry Tempest Williams

We’re animals, I think we forget that. I think there is an ancient archetypal memory that still exists within us. If we deny that, what is the cost? So I do think it’s what binds us as human beings.

In the dark of the moon there is growth. Plants do not flourish in the noonday sun, but rather in the privacy of the new moon.

I could walk forever with beauty. Our steps are not measured in miles but in the amount of time we are pulled forward by awe. This is another gift from our national parks, to be led by the vistas, to forget what nags us at home and remember what sustains us, the horizon.

I would like to hear the words “public lands” spoken in every election debate, with candidates holding both government and corporations accountable in their oversight and use. The fact of more than three hundred million visits to our national parks last year tells me I am not alone.

I think about the poet Rainer Maria Rilke who said that it’s the questions that move us, not the answers. As a writer, I believe that it’s our task, our responsibility, to hold the mirror up to social injustices that we see and to create a prayer of beauty. The questions serve us in that capacity.

Writing becomes an act of compassion toward life, the life we so often refuse to see because if we look too closely or feel too deeply, there may be no end to our suffering. But words empower us, move us beyond our suffering, and set us free. This is the sorcery of literature. We are healed by our stories.

Community is extremely intimate. When we talk about humor, I love that you know when you’re home because there is laughter in the room, there is humor, there is shorthand. That is about community.

I take a deep breath and sidestep my fear and begin speaking from the place where beauty and bravery meet – within the chambers of a quivering heart.

I think about capitalism, consumerism, our consumptive nature as a species approaching the 21st century. I certainly don’t have the answers.