If hot food is they key to maintaining an expedition's stamina, then low grade gut-rot alcohol is the key to sustaining its sense of pleasure.

Any man who has ever led an army, an expedition, or a group of Boy Scouts has sadism in his bones.

The forest did not tolerate frailty of body or mind. Show your weakness, and it would consume you without hesitation.

There comes a stage at which a man would rather die cleanly by a bullet than by the unknown terror of the phantom in the forest.

I was no longer troubled when he pulled out a machete in a crowded bar, tried to pick up schoolgirls, or threatened to scalp us, then rip off our heads and scoop out our brains.

Previous journeys in search of treasure have taught me that a zigzag strategy is the best way to get ahead.

The inertia of a jungle village is a dangerous thing. Before you know it your whole life has slipped by and you are still waiting there.

The rain of Madre de Dios is similar to that of the Amazon, but there is a petrifying aspect to it, as if it seeks to wound rather than to nurture.

On a hard jungle journey nothing is so important as having a team you can trust.

On a harsh expedition, there's no space for anyone who does not intend to finish.

Searching for a lost city is a particularly European obsession.

It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)

If someone hurts you, he is hurting himself. He may not be able to escape that hurt in his lifetime.

Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants and to serve them one's self?

I am very sad that some designers are still using real fur when the fake alternatives are so effective and so easily obtainable.

So many people feel that once you reach a certain age then it's time for you to retire from a sport you love. I don't think that's true at all. I think age should not dictate that.

One death is a tragedy; a thousand is a statistic.

When they write about real stuff like my custody battle, that's no fun. Some things have leaked out about accusations that have gone back and forth and that's just mean. It's a tactic.

To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose.

Relationships are based on four principles: respect, understanding, acceptance and appreciation.

Rose, nothing in this world could make me hate you." "Not even trying to bring my ex-boyfriend back from the dead?