Common sense is no match for the voice of God.

I love being outdoors, being in the mountains and the desert, and my wife enjoys that too. That's one of the things that sustain our relationship.

When Alex left for Alaska," Franz remembers, "I prayed. I asked God to keep his finger on the shoulder of that one; I told him that boy was special. But he let Alex die. So on December 26, when I learned what happened, I renounced the Lord. I withdrew my church membership and became an atheist. I decided I couldn't believe in a God who would let something that terrible happen to a boy like Alex.

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.

I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong... to measure yourself at least once.

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

...books possess an ounce-of-weight to minute-of-entertainment ratio that compares quite favorably to intoxicants.