Soloing is serious business, because you can be seriously dead.

Every day I go out and climb, like a dancer who works on his dance. He probably has some goals, some pieces he would like to perform, but his main goal is to work on his dance. This is how he expresses himself. Both he and I are interested in the same thing. It’s the dance that counts.

I accept the consequences of all that I do. No matter what we do with our lives, our bodies are temporary. We’re all going to die, and I’d rather die climbing than doing anything else.

Everybody free-solos. When you walk to the store, you’re free-soloing. It’s just a matter of the difficulty of the route.

Death is a gift. Without it we wouldn’t value life.