Peter Matthiessen quotes

In nonfiction, you have that limitation, that constraint, of telling the truth. (Peter Matthiessen)

Here I am, safely returned over those peaks from a journey far more beautiful and strange than anything I had hoped for or imagined - how is it that this safe return brings such regret?

Peter Matthiessen

I was just very interested in the American frontier and the growth of capitalism - those enormous fortunes that were being made, more often than not, on the blood of poor people, black people, Indian people. They were the ones who paid very dearly for those great fortunes.

Peter Matthiessen

In fiction, you have a rough idea what's coming up next - sometimes you even make a little outline - but in fact you don't know. Each day is a whole new - and for me, a very invigorating - experience.

Peter Matthiessen

When I'm in the field, when I'm working, I keep very careful notes. I wear big shirts with big breast pockets, and I carry in them two little spiral notebooks.

Peter Matthiessen

The concept of conservation is a far truer sign of civilization than that spoilation of a continent which we once confused with progress.

Peter Matthiessen

Amazingly, we take for granted that instinct for survival, fear of death, must separate us from the happiness of pure and uninterpreted experience, in which body, mind, and nature are the same. And this debasement of our vision, the retreat from wonder, the backing away like lobsters into safe crannies, the desperate instinct that our life passes unlived, is reflected in proliferation without joy, corrosive money rot, the gross befouling of the earth and air and water from which we came.

Peter Matthiessen

I used to distinguish between my fiction and nonfiction in terms of superiority or inferiority.

Peter Matthiessen

I think in any writing you're paying attention to detail.

Peter Matthiessen