I used to distinguish between my fiction and nonfiction in terms of superiority or inferiority. Peter Matthiessen More Quotes by Peter Matthiessen More Quotes From Peter Matthiessen This world is painted on a wild dark metal Peter Matthiessen this-worlddarkworld The ancient intuition that all matter, all "reality," is energy, that all phenomena, including time and space, are mere crystallizations of mind, is an idea with which few physicists have quarreled since the theory of relativity first called into question the separate identities of energy and matter. Today most scientists would agree with the ancient Hindus that nothing exists or is destroyed, things merely change shape or form; that matter is insubstantial in origin, a temporary aggregate of he pervasive energy that animates the electron. Peter Matthiessen spacerealityideas In nonfiction, you have that limitation, that constraint, of telling the truth. Peter Matthiessen fiction-and-nonfictionconstraintstelling-the-truth It is related that Sakyamuni [the historical Buddha] once dismissed as of small consequence a feat of levitation on the part of a disciple, and cried out in pity for a yogin by the river who had spent twenty years of his human existence learning to walk on water, when the ferryman might have taken him across for a small coin. Peter Matthiessen takenriversyears 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 notebookpocketstwo 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 blackbloodpeople I think in any writing you're paying attention to detail. Peter Matthiessen detailswritingthinking Have you seen the snow leopard? No! Isn't that wonderful? Peter Matthiessen leopardswonderfulsnow
