Terry Tempest Williams Quotes

I write as a witness to what I have seen.

I love the ordered mind of history because it takes us out of the chaos, momentarily, and says, "Ah, so this is the story we are engaged in."

I think direct political action, civil disobedience, in particular, is something to be taken very seriously.

There are times we have to put our body on the line for what we believe, for the injustices we see even within our own families.

At the heart of Mormonism is a high regard for community. That is its strength. I have great respect for that.

If you waste water, you die.

I believe a politics of place emerges where we are deeply accountable to our communities, to our neighborhoods, to our home.

Hope is not attached to outcomes but is a state of mind.

Hope radiates outward from the center of our concerns. Hope dares us to stare the miraculous in the eye and have the courage not to look away.

Good writing must stay open to the questions and not fall prey to the pull of a polemic, otherwise, words simply become predictable, sentimental, and stale.

I remember as a child, my grandmother read to me Silent Spring. It was incomprehensible to me that there could be a world without birdsong.

Story is a sacred visualization, a way of echoing experience.

Each voice is distinct and has something to say. Each voice deserves to be heard. But it requires the act of listening.

It was fascinating listening to this wonderful biologist, Sarah Allen Miller, speak of her relationship to these beings for 20 years.

I don't set boundaries for myself when I am writing; if I did, I would be paralyzed from the start, unable to write a word on the page.

In Utah alone, ten million acres are open for business. Their policy is not about the public or the public's best interest. It is about the oil and gas corporations' best interests.

I am a woman with wings, ' I once wrote and will revise these words again. 'I am a woman with wings dancing with other women with wings.' In a voiced community, we all flourish.

The courage to continue before the face of despair is the recognition in those eyes of darkness we find our own night vision. Women blessed with death-eyes are fearless.

How we treat our land, how we build upon it, how we act toward our air and water, in the long run, will tell what kind of people we really are.-Laurance S. Rockefeller

When it comes to words, rather than using our own voice, authentic and unpracticed, we steal someone else's to shield our fear.

It is not possible to satisfy women, " a friend said. "We are disturbed if we have children too young. Disturbed if we have then later. Disturbed if we don't have children at all.

words are much stronger than I am.

There is comfort in keeping what is sacred inside us not as a secret, but as a prayer.

When I said, “I am my mother, but I’m not, ” I was saying my path would be my own.

I have found what I need most to heal a broken bond is time together—the very thing I avoid is the thing most desired.

To write, ” Marguerite Duras remarked, “is also not to speak. It is to keep silent. It is to howl noiselessly.

When I look in the mirror, I see a woman with secrets. When we don’t listen to our intuition, we abandon our souls. And we abandon our souls because we are afraid if we don’t, others will abandon us.

Respect is primary.

Her body was rounded like earth. Stories. Breath. . . . Her eyes have been painted closed. I understand. To tell a story you must travel inward.

Listening over and over to the voices through a family of instruments allowed us to recognize and appreciate the dignity and uniqueness of each living thing in the meadow and forest.

But harboring regrets is making love to the past, and there is no movement here.

Did I have the courage to forge a path

Each of us has one. Each voice is distinct and has something to say. Each voice deserves to be heard. But it requires the act of listening.

My grandmother simply shook her head and said, "You know what you saw. The bird doesn't need to be counted, and neither do you.

Can you be inside and outside at the same time?I think this is where I live.I think this is where most women live.I know this is where writers live.Inside to write. Outside to glean.

A pencil is a wand and a weapon. Be careful. Protect yourself. It can be glorious.

Finding one’s voice is a process of finding one’s passion.

We know the quality of another’s heart through her voice.

Once you know that you have a voice, ” Louis said, “it’s no longer the voice that matters, but what is behind the voice.

Faith is the centerpiece of a connected life. It allows us to live by the grace of invisible strands. It is a belief in a wisdom superior to our own. Faith becomes a teacher in the absence of fact.