Gary Paulsen Quotes

I ran the Iditarod twice. I finished once. I came in 42nd or 43rd place out of 70 plus teams the first time, and I scratched 80 miles from Nome the second time. You can read about my experience in the race in my books 'Woodsong' and 'Winterdance.'

I went for a walk in the Arctic Circle without map or compass. Fortunately, I was only lost for hours, not days.

The maximum expression of running dogs is the Iditarod. You enter a state of primitive exaltation, and you never return. You're never normal again.

My dad just decided that he wanted to race sled dogs, and when he did that, he took us out of Wasilla, and we never really went back.

There's really only three things you can write music about: girls, cars and surfing.

I do like all different kinds of sports and stuff. I've taken up gymnastics and slacklining - you know, tightroping, basically.

I remember, in the winter of our first experiments, just seven years ago, looking on snow with new eyes.

I admire bull riders for their passion and the uniqueness each one of them has.

I grew up on the edge of a national park in Canada - timberwolves, creeks, snow drifts. I really did have to walk home six miles through the snow, like your grandparents used to complain.

Mountaineering is one of the most difficult sports - we are away from routine life for days, living in tents, and it requires high degree of physical and mental strength.

It is hard to go back into a world that has already been explored, so to speak. And the fans are very passionate about it, and you don't want to burst that bubble; you don't want to break that illusion. You want to get it right. You want it to feel familiar, but also surprising.

Next to acting, being in the great outdoors is my biggest passion.

Climbing is what I do.

Unless you paddle for the wave, you'll never know if you could catch it. But once you do... Ride it as long as you can. Love as long as you can.

The most remote place I've been to was in Greenland. I remember setting out for a solo hike from a small cabin, itself several hours' boat ride from the nearest settlement.

I sail, run dogs, ride horses, play professional poker and tell stories about the stuff I've been through. And I'm still a romantic; I still want Bambi to make it out of the fire.

Now my eyes are turned from the South to the North, and I want to lead one more Expedition. This will be the last... to the North Pole.

I love the feeling of touching the rock, the feeling of my body going up the rock.

I was never comfortable with the risk of climbing in the Himalayas, or the amount of time in idleness that is involved in the Everest expedition.

I've always loved the old epics that tell a simple emotional story, whether it's the tumultuous relationship between Rhett and Scarlett or Lawrence of Arabia's passion to get lost in a faraway place.

With slight risk of exaggeration you could say that he walked almost every mile of the Indian land.

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

I'm a teller of stories. I put bloody skins on my back and dance around the fire, and I say what the hunt was like. It's not erudite; it's not intellectual. I sail, run dogs, ride horses, play professional poker, and tell stories about the stuff I've been through. And I'm still a romantic; I still want Bambi to make it out of the fire.

Watching a documentary with people hacking their way through some polar wasteland is merely a visual. Actually trying to deal with cold that can literally kill you is quite a different thing.

I'm kind of obsessed by Everest and all those men that mountaineer and take themselves to extreme limits.