My activism is a result of my love. So whether it's trying to preserve the wilderness in Southern Utah or writing about an erotics of place, it is that same impulse - to try to make sense of the world, to try to preserve something that is beautiful, to ask the tough questions, the push the boundaries of what is acceptable.

Buddha says there are two kinds of suffering: the kind that leads to more suffering and the kind that brings an end to suffering.

To withhold words is power. But to share our words with others, openly and honestly, is also power.

Landscape shapes culture

Well, we are Americans. I've always believed that you work with where you are - I am a Mormon woman who was raised on the edge of the Great Salt Lake in the American West in the United States of America. But, by the same token, much of my life has been spent resisting traditional forms of democracy, resisting traditional forms of orthodoxy, be it the United States government or the Mormon Church.

Story is a sacred visualization, a way of echoing experience.

If you take away all the prairie dogs, there will be no one to cry for the rain.