Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" 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. "
Jon Krakauer
Impact
Moon
Outer Space
Related Quotes:
" I knew that you couldn't make a living simply writing about the outdoors, so I made an effort from the beginning of my freelance career to write about other subjects. "
Jon Krakauer
Writing
Outdoors
Effort
" The pieces I've written for 'Outside' magazine are definitely my best work, and they're virtually all about the outdoors. "
Jon Krakauer
Best
Outside
Work
" When I was 23, I went to Alaska by myself into the glaciers of the coast range and climbed a mountain by myself. It was incredibly reckless, incredibly stupid. But I was lucky. And I survived, and I came back to tell my story. "
Jon Krakauer
Back
Mountain
Story
" Most friendly fire incidents aren't investigated properly because of neglect or a natural inclination to cover up the embarrassing fact that they killed one of their own. "
Jon Krakauer
Fact
Up
Own
" You can get a lawyer with two months off or a New York socialite who wants to play at being Lewis and Clark and put them up there, but Everest is still in charge; it can still kick butt. "
Jon Krakauer
New
Lawyer
New York
" I never studied writing, but I'd always been a reader and had a secret fantasy about being a writer. "
Jon Krakauer
Never
Secret
Writing
" When I went to Everest, I underestimated things. I just didn't know what altitude could do. Or the cold - I especially didn't appreciate the cold. It can be just debilitating, and things can happen so quickly. "
Jon Krakauer
Know
Cold
Appreciate
" Rob Hall was, without doubt, the most competent guide in mountaineering. "
Jon Krakauer
Guide
Doubt
Without
" Military investigations are designed not to find anyone guilty. "
Jon Krakauer
Designed
Guilty
Find
" There is nothing glamorous or romantic about war. It's mostly about random pointless death and misery. "
Jon Krakauer
Romantic
War
Random
" I guess I don't try to justify climbing or defend it, because I can't. I see climbing as a compulsion that, at its best, is no worse than many other compulsions - golf or stamp collecting or growing world-record pumpkins. "
Jon Krakauer
Best
See
Climbing
" The way Everest is guided is very different from the way other mountains are guided, and it flies in the face of values I hold dear: self-reliance, taking responsibility for what you do, making your own decisions, trusting your judgment - the kind of judgment that comes only through paying your dues, through experience. "
Jon Krakauer
Experience
Responsibility
Mountains
" There's something about being afraid, about being small, about enforced humility that draws me to climbing. "
Jon Krakauer
Humility
Afraid
Small
" Let's not mince words: Everest doesn't attract a whole lot of well-balanced folks. The self-selection process tends to weed out the cautious and the sensible in favor of those who are single-minded and incredibly driven. Which is a big reason the mountain is so dangerous. "
Jon Krakauer
Process
Dangerous
Big
" It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it. "
Jon Krakauer
Want
You
Desire
" What makes climbing great for me, strangely enough, is this life-and-death aspect. It sounds trite to say, I know, but climbing isn't just another game. It isn't just another sport. It's life itself. Which is what makes it so compelling and also what makes it so impossible to justify when things go bad. "
Jon Krakauer
Life
Impossible
Know
" How can you not be a feminist if you have a brain in your head? If you're not a feminist, then you're a problem. "
Jon Krakauer
Brain
Head
You
" I'm not even religious, but I get fanaticism. I get the appeal of it. "
Jon Krakauer
Appeal
Even
Fanaticism
" Climbing Mount Everest was the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life. I wish I'd never gone. I suffered for years of PTSD and still suffer from what happened. I'm glad I wrote a book about it. But, you know, if I could go back and relive my life, I would never have climbed Everest. "
Jon Krakauer
Book
Wish
My Life
" 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. "
Jon Krakauer
Environment
Time
Doing The Right Thing
" 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. "
Jon Krakauer
Wife
Love
Mountains
" You get a compound fracture in Colorado where I live, and you can probably be in a hospital within a matter of hours, certainly within a day. "
Jon Krakauer
Day
Hospital
Colorado
" Short form media is reductionist by nature. "
Jon Krakauer
Short
Form
Nature
" When I start any book, I have no idea what I'm going to do. "
Jon Krakauer
Any
No Idea
Book
" Everest is not real climbing. It's rich people climbing. It's a trophy on the wall, and they're done... When I say I wish I'd never gone, I really mean that. "
Jon Krakauer
Rich
People
Say
" Almost every magazine piece I've ever written, I felt like I haven't done it justice, like it was just a gloss. "
Jon Krakauer
Justice
Magazine
Done
" I really enjoy researching, and for almost every piece, I research enough to write a book. "
Jon Krakauer
Research
Enough
Enjoy
" The thing that is most beautiful about Antarctica for me is the light. It's like no other light on Earth, because the air is so free of impurities. You get drugged by it, like when you listen to one of your favorite songs. The light there is a mood-enhancing substance. "
Jon Krakauer
Beautiful
Earth
Free
" As I point out in the very first pages of 'Into the Wild,' I approached this book not as a normal, you know, unbiased journalist. "
Jon Krakauer
Point
Know
Book
" I've had a lot of crappy jobs, but one of my favorites was working as a commercial fisherman in Alaska. What I loved about it was, you got paid for what you caught. "
Jon Krakauer
Caught
Loved
Working