Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet.

There is nothing glamorous or romantic about war. It's mostly about random pointless death and misery.

It was titillating to brush up against the enigma of mortality, to steal a glimpse across its forbidden frontier. Climbing was a magnificient activity, I firmly believed, not in spite of the inherent perils, but precisely because of them.

Mr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one.

Antarctica has this mythic weight. It resides in the collective unconscious of so many people, and it makes this huge impact, just like outer space. It's like going to the moon.

Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.

Once you believe that God is speaking directly to you, there is no discussion.