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

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

It was their individuality combined with the shyness of their behavior that remained the most captivating impression of this first encounter with the greatest of the great apes.

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 feel more comfortable with gorillas than people. I can anticipate what a gorilla's going to do, and they're purely motivated.