A man's duty? To be ready -- with rifle or rood -- to defend his home when the showdown comes.

What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate in the remote.

Night and day the river flows. If time is the mind of space, the River is the soul of the desert. Brave boatmen come, they go, they die, the voyage flows on forever. We are all canyoneers. We are all passengers on this little mossy ship, this delicate dory sailing round the sun that humans call the earth. Joy, shipmates, joy.

Is the Archbishop's blessing any more meaningful than the Politician's handshake? The come, they go, with bigger things than us on their minds.

Literary critics, like a herd of cows or a school of fish, always face in the same direction, obeying that love for unity that every critic requires.

I'm a fastidious sort of fellow, fond of watermelon and buckbrush nuts.

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.