Carl Safina Quotes

I approach my character with the question: What would an animal think? How would an animal respond? A lot of times, it's quick action and no fear, and sometimes it's irrational fear. You don't always know.

Horses are prey animals, and most of the other animals that I've shot are predators. If you act mellow with predators, they know that they can kill you, so they are cool, but if you work with prey, they think that you're going to kill them at any moment.

Any dog, you put him in the corner, no matter if they're vicious or not, they're going to bite back.

Katniss....he's still trying to keep you alive.

Nothin wounded goes uphill, he said. It just dont happen.

What makes horror movies work is the idea that "oh my God, what would I do if I were in that situation? How would I get out of that alive? What would I do if I saw the door to my closet creaking open in the middle of the night and a doll on a tricycle comes riding out?"

If the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all members of his species, then the best lives for the writer to observe are those in which the role of natural necessity is clearest, namely, the lives of the very poor.

I'm doubtful about the temper of your flamingo. Shall I try the experiment?

I saw this bloke chatting up a cheetah. He was trying to pull a fast one.

Yes, I'm alive," Mat said. "I'm usually pretty good at staying alive. I've only failed one time that I can remember, and it hardly counts.

In a place where there are no humans, one must strive to be human.

Our appetites, of one or another kind, are excellent spurs to our reason, which might otherwise but feebly set about the great ends of preserving and continuing the species.

Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance.

Sheep can befriend a hungry wolf only for briefly.

I think maybe the reason I have spent most of my life being afraid is that I have been trying to prepare myself to train my body for real fear when it comes. But I am not prepared.

Isn't it amazing how, when you strip away everything, people are so much alike?

We may smile and the dog may wag the tail, but in essence, we have a set program and those programs are similar across individuals in the species.

The nasty little apes that call themselves human beings can do nothing except run and hide.

I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves.

A burnt dog dreads the fire.

The sheer folly of trying to defend a nation by destroying all life on the planet must be apparent to anyone capable of rational thought. Nuclear capability must be reduced to zero, globally, permanently. There is no other option.

Rabbits live close to death and when death comes closer than usual, thinking about survival leaves little room for anything else.

Even animals have a conscience. Those in the jungle KILL only to eat, not live to kill. This is why we often see packs of predators focusing on just one kill, instead of targeting many. Even animals exercise reason. I have seen a mother lion taking care of a baby antelope, and a mother elephant taking care of a baby lion. The primal need to eat is unavoidable, yet even under severe hunger stretches, the desire to love can sometimes overcome the desire to eat.

He watched it with that strange interest in trivial things that we try to develop when things of high import make us afraid, or when we are stirred by some new emotion for which we cannot find expression.