William Least Heat-Moon Quotes

I did a story for the Geographic on Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and Stephen Ambrose was the writer. He said, "I've got the easiest job in the world. I just have to re-tell the story of the greatest fishing, camping, hunting, canoeing trip of all time. You, Sam, have the hardest job, which is, pretend like nothing has happened in the last 200 years.

There's something about the Pacific Northwest, the scale of it, and the fact that not so long ago people came here and died getting here, and then died the first winter they were here. There's this breathtaking beauty, just a little bit of moss on the tree, just this little thread of danger, and the sinister. And I really like that.

I can recall, as a young adult, running through the rain forest at the Forest Reserve, at times feeling a sense of fear when I felt I was in danger. In danger of confronting an ugly snake or a coral snake, which represented the greatest fear of someone in a rural area when you traverse the forest.

Major North and myself went out in advance of the command several miles and killed a number of buffaloes.

We were also fortunate enough to engage in our service a Canadian Frenchmen, who had been with the Chayenne Indians on the Black mountains, and last summer descended thence by the Little Missouri.

The true alpinist doesn't want any infrastructure, he wants to go into the wild. And the odds of getting killed there are relatively high. And most people are sensible enough not to want that.

Once, I got lost in the middle of the desert and had to follow the North Star to find the dirt road where my truck was parked a few miles away. Another time, I got stuck in quicksand for two days.

Books of exploration have always fascinated me, like somebody going up the Amazon for the first time.

I am one of those people who deeply resents not having been born in the 19th century, when there were still open places to explore.

The expedition of Messrs. Lewis & Clarke for exploring the river Missouri, & the best communication from that to the Pacific ocean, has had all the success which could have been expected.

One time, I took a woman on a deserted island, and we lived like Mother Nature for 10 days.

Yeah, I like going away for camp. It brings out the savagery.

I've been around the world seven times, been stabbed three times, been down in an airplane, and once dated the Bearded Lady.

Not many know that I'm a mountaineer, and my love for adventure will never die.

For me, climbing has always been about adventure and that involves difficulties, danger and exposure, so I deliberately set out to climb with as little equipment as possible.

When every inch of the world is known, sleep may be the only wilderness that we have left.

New skin, a new land! And a land of liberty, if that is possible! I chose the geology of a land that was new to me.

Adventure, yeah. I guess that's what you call it when everybody comes back alive.

I hope that you, too, will choose to have a journey instead of just a life. Actually, I hope it's a full on expedition.

You know you are truly alive when you’re living among lions.

Ultimately I wanted to be a pioneer swimmer, a distant descendant of Scott, Amundsen and Hillary, except that I would be an explorer of the water.

It is a real wilderness, and those who go there should not feel too safe.

For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers!

Hey, this is terrific!" he said. "Someone down there is trying to kill us!" "Terrific," said Arthur. "But don't you see what this means?" "Yes. We are going to die." "Yes, but apart from that." "Apart from that?!" "It means we must be on to something!" "How soon can we get off it?

To the question: Wilderness, who needs it? Doc would say: Because we like the taste of freedom, comrades. Because we like the smell of danger. But, thought Hayduke, what about the smell of fear, Dad?