Antarctica is a very alien environment, and you can't survive here more than minutes if you're not equipped properly and doing the right thing all the time.

An extended stay in the wilderness inevitably directs one's attention outward as much as inward, and it is impossible to live off the land without developing both a subtle understanding of, and a strong emotional bond with, that land and all it holds.

HAPPINESS is ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED

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.

I never studied writing, but I'd always been a reader and had a secret fantasy about being a writer.

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

But [Everett] and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.