Susan Orlean Quotes

Perhaps we too seldom reflect how much the life of Nature is one with the life of man, how unimportant or indeed merely seeming, the difference between them.

For the first time in my life the eternal 'I' becomes 'we', as, finally, I can get on with someone.

From the very dawn of time until now and well into the future... human-animal companionship is at the very core of our instincts not only for mutual survival, but mutually rewarding relationships.

In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.

We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist and forever will recreate each other.

Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.

Animals represent the abstract notion of acceptance. Living with these funny creatures - you kind of have to accept them. It's like a test in a way.

Friendship is such an important thing to me, and I feel like the people who I love and help keep me whole - I can't imagine a life without them.

No one can live without relationship. You may withdraw into the mountains, become a monk, a sannyasi, wander off into the desert by yourself, but you are related. You cannot escape from that absolute fact. You cannot exist in isolation.

Nature promotes mutualism. The flower nourishes the bee. The river waters quench the thirst of all living beings. And trees provide a welcoming home to so many birds and animals. There is a rhythm to this togetherness.

I think you realize how much you need to have people that you love. It's not as much about them loving you - it's about you needing to love people.

It’s an important time to be writing about the connections we share with our fellow creatures. It’s a great time to be alive.

Patch was in my life for a reason. I needed him. We were two halves of the same whole.

I think being compassionate of each other's lives and issues is nonnegotiable when it comes to friendships. We're all going through different stages and issues, and as I get older, I'm trying to lean into that.

I think it's the same with all the relationships between a man and a woman. They can survive anything so long as some kind of basic humanity exists between the two people. When all kindness has gone, when one person obviously and sincerely doesn't care if the other is alive or dead, then it's just no good. -- from Quantum of Solace

Connecting to something keeps our empathy alive.

In nature nothing exists alone.

I think that's a connection that you can only hope for. It's not something that you can make because it needs someone else.

You are fastened to them and cannot understand how, because they are not fastened to you.

All friendship is desirable in itself, though it starts from the need of help

We are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live his life for himself alone.

All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man... the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.

What is essential - the one thing that could stop us being coarsened to other lives - is that we feel a great, living wave of animal life all around us, covering the earth.

What a lonely species we are, searching for signals of life from other galaxies, adopting companion animals, visiting parks and zoos to commune with other beasts. In the process, we discover our shared identity.

We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community.