Active conservation [of gorillas] involves simply going out into the forest, on foot, day after day after day, attempting to capture poachers, killing-regretfully-poacher dogs, which spread rabies within the park, and cutting down traps.

I shall never forget my first encounter with gorillas. Sound preceded sight. Odor preceded sound in the form of an overwhelming, musky-barnyard, humanlike scent. The air was suddenly rent by a high-pitched series of screams followed by the rhythmic rondo of sharp pok-pok chestbeats from a great silverbacked male obscured behind what seemed an impenetrable wall of vegetation.

The extraordinary gentleness of the adult male with his young dispels all the King Kong mythology.

I have no friends. The more you learn about the dignity of the gorilla, the more you want to avoid people.

One of the basic steps in saving a threatened species is to learn more about it: its diet, its mating and reproductive processes, its range patterns, its social behavior.

I had this great urge... I had it the day I was born. Some may call it destiny. My parents and friends called it dismaying.

When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.