Marilynne Robinson Quotes

I took four years off after 'In the Cut' because I wanted to see who I'd be without work. I even tried being a hermit in the wilderness in New Zealand. I stayed in a warden's hut two-and-a-half hours off the Routeburn Track through the fjords on the South Island. It was early winter, so there was no electricity or running water.

I've been able to carve out spaces for myself. At Sundance, I'm in the mountains - my property is private. I get on a horse and ride for three, four hours. Sometimes five. I get lost. But when I'm in, I'm in.

I love life. There's so much to learn and see all the time, and nothing nicer for me than to wake up, and the sky is blue.

So I've been pushed farther and farther out into the mountains, but at the same time realizing that that experience is really nice and I'm glad I'm getting pushed out there farther.

One of the places where we lived when I was growing up had this big wood out the back. And starting when I was about 8, I used to enjoy just walking alone through the wood late. Eleven p.m. Midnight. Later.

Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?

I always felt that everything that happened was incredibly exhilarating and massively puzzling at the same time. I can even remember, when I was six or seven, digging a hole beneath a tree. And I would go into this tomb, this cave that I had made, and would lie there, meditating, for hours.

I grew up in Michigan. I feel like a lot of my childhood was in solitude, in the woods or making tree forts.

I recall feeling an almost delicious terror when one day I found myself alone in the midst of tall June grasses that grew high as my head. But here the secret working of self consciousness is almost too entangled with the things of the past for me to explain it.

But I think there's something wonderful and extraordinary about climbing on your own and just that kind of relationship to the environment. I'm very addicted to the mountains. You know, so, I do like that solitude.

I spent much of my childhood in northern Quebec, and often there was no radio, no television - there wasn't a lot to entertain us. When it rained, I stayed inside reading, writing, drawing.

I now walk into the wild.

Being outside on your own in all weathers is exciting; it clears you out.

In my down time, I'm a homebody. I like to do a walkabout. I like my alone time.

Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity.

You can't separate the people from the places - although I sometimes like traveling in places where there are no people.

I longed from a tiny child to get away on my own. When I was five, I walked out along the sands from Redcar, nearly all the way to Hartlepool.

I can gabble on now, but I couldn't when I was a kid, so I spent a lot of time in my own head on the moors by myself. It felt like writing was the right way to express myself.

The world is a fascinating, difficult place, and in order to take full advantage of what the planet has to offer, we need to see and hear natural things.

We were now arrived at the close of our solitary journeyings along the St. Joseph's trail.

There's something about the water - that solitary kind of peaceful feeling. You're on Earth but not quite.

I have gone to the forest.

I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.

I like being near the top of a mountain. One can't get lost here.